Abstract
Health promotion and disease prevention activities should be carried out by all health care professionals. These activities are especially important in the Newly Independent States (NIS) of the former Soviet Union where resources are not available to meet all health care needs. Little is known about actual health risks among health care professionals in the NIS. Such self knowledge is important to link professional's prevention activities to risk factors for disease. To determine the prevalence of selected health risks of health professionals in Tbilisi, the capital of the NIS Georgia, a survey was conducted in 1996 with a convenience sample of 107 physicians and nurses.
Participants completed the Healthier People Health Risk Appraisal (HPHRA), then researchers measured each subject's height, weight, blood pressure, and total cholesterol. Compared to the U.S. norms used in the HPHRA program analysis, measured group results for the Georgians were in the very high risk category for lack of seatbelt usage and stressful lifestyle, in the high risk category for lack of exercise, and in the moderately high risk category for blood pressure and smoking. The measured weight and reported alcohol consumption for Georgians was comparable to the U.S. national averages and total cholesterol values were below U.S. average levels.