The Relation between Physical Activity and the Quality of Life and Well-Being of the Employees of the Tehran Police Headquarter with an Emphasis on Gender Differences
INTRODUCTION Regular physical activity has many health benefits, including prevention of chronic diseases and premature deaths, improvement of physical and mental health, and better cognitive function [1-4]. ... [5]. Research data show that adults do not have adequate levels of physical activity, w...
| Main Authors: | , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Directorate of Health, Rescue & Treatment of Police Headquarter
2022-01-01
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| Series: | طب انتظامی |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://jpmed.ir/article-1-1098-en.html |
| Summary: | INTRODUCTION
Regular physical activity has many health benefits, including prevention of chronic diseases and premature deaths, improvement of physical and mental health, and better cognitive function [1-4]. ... [5]. Research data show that adults do not have adequate levels of physical activity, which can jeopardize their current and future health [6-9]. ... [7]. In Iran, not many types of research have been conducted regarding the amount of participation of adults in physical activity, but these few types of research indicate the low level of moderate to severe physical activity of adults [10]. One of the groups in the age group of adults, who should participate in regular physical activity due to the nature of their job and maintaining their physical and mental health, are the personnel of police Headquarter. Quality of life is one of the factors in which participation in physical activity has been effective in different age groups, including adults [11-13]. Health-related quality of life focuses on the subjective perception of adults, their health status, and their ability to perform daily activities in different areas of life [14-17]. Systematic review evidence suggests that higher levels of physical activity are associated with higher health-related quality of life scores [18]. However, the relationship between physical activity and quality of life in police command staff has not been investigated and this issue needs to be investigated. In addition, evidence has shown that physical activity is associated with well-being [16, 19]. Well-being is not only related to the absence of disease, but it is a complex combination of physical, mental, emotional, and social health factors of a person [20].
AIM(S)
The purpose of this research was to determine the level of physical activity of the employees of the Great Tehran Police Headquarter and to investigate the relationship between physical activity and the quality of life related to their health and well-being by emphasizing gender differences.
RESEARCH TYPE
This research method is descriptive correlation based on structural equations.
RESEARCH SOCIETY, PLACE & TIME
The statistical population of this research was all employees of Great Tehran Police Headquarter (including the traffic police, police stations, and Fateb Headquarters) in 2021.
SAMPLING METHOD AND NUMBER
The statistical sample of this research was 186 men and women using Cochran's formula by available sampling method.
USED DEVICES & MATERIALS
Physical activity was measured using the short form of the International Physical Activity Questionnaire (IPAQ) [21]. This questionnaire is suitable for determining the physical activity of adults aged 18-65 years, and its validity and reliability have been reported very well [22]. In this research, the validity of this questionnaire was confirmed by eight experts. Also, Cronbach's alpha coefficient of this questionnaire was 0.92. The cut-off point for different classes of physical activity states that each adult should preferably have 30 minutes of moderate-intensity physical daily activity in a week [22]. Health-related quality of life was measured using the SF-12 questionnaire. This questionnaire is a general tool for measuring the health status of people 14 years and older. The minimum and maximum scores of this test are between 0 and 100, which means that the closer the subject's score is to 100, the higher the health-related quality of life and vice versa. This questionnaire has been used many times in Iran and has high validity and reliability [23]. In this research, the validity of this questionnaire was confirmed by eight experts. Also, Cronbach's alpha coefficient was 0.88. The cut-off point of this questionnaire is 46, which indicates the physical and mental health status of a person [23]. In this research, the well-being variable was measured using the Adult Well-Being Assessment Questionnaire (AWA), which is a valid survey to assess the physical and mental well-being of adults [24]. In this study, the validity of this questionnaire was confirmed by eight experts. Also, Cronbach's alpha coefficient was equal to 0.86. The cut-off point of this questionnaire is 5, which indicates a person's sense of normal well-being [24].
METHOD
The method of conducting the research was in a way that after coordinating with the officials of the Great Tehran Police Headquarter, the research questionnaires were distributed among the employees, and the people who were willing to participate in the research completed and submitted the questionnaires.
ETHICAL PERMISSION
To comply with the ethical standards, the ethical principles including the introduction of the research, the objectives, and method of conducting the research, and the privacy policy were presented to the participants.
STATISTICAL ANALYSIS
The Kolmogorov–Smirnov test was used to check the normality of the research data. Pearson's correlation test and structural equations were used for the inferential analysis of relationships between research analyses. Differences between men and women were analyzed using an independent t-test. The significance level was considered at 0.05. Data were analyzed using SPSS 26 and Lisrel 8.8 software.
FINDING by TEXT
Out of 186 sample participants in this research, 93 people were from police stations, 71 people were from traffic police and 22 people were from Fateb Headquarters. As the most important index in the subject's profile, the body mass index of men (23.80±1.36) is higher than women (22.63±1.75) (Table 1). Although the body mass index was normal in both genders, it was very close to the overweight level in men. Men had a higher level of physical activity than women (Table 2). The results showed that 54% of men and 52% of women had moderate to intense physical activity. Also, health-related quality of life scores was almost the same in both genders and was in the average range (t=0.25; p=0.942). Finally, the well-being scores of men and women were the same and were in the average range (t=0.42; p=0.785; Table 2). The results of the Kolmogorov-Smirnov test showed that the research data had a normal distribution (p>0.05). The results of the independent t-test showed that men compared to women in the number of days they did the physical activity (t=1.93; p=0.015) and also the number of minutes they did physical activity during the week (t=6.27; p<0.001) had significant superiority (Table 2). The results of Pearson's correlation coefficient to investigate the two-way relationship between the research variables showed that there is a relationship between health-related quality of life and physical activity (days per week and minutes per week, respectively, r=0.621 and r=0.416) and also there was a significant relationship with physical activity intensity (r=0.737), (p<0.001). Also, there was a significant relationship between physical activity (days per week and minutes per week, respectively, r=0.517 and r=0.582) and intensity of physical activity (r=0.326), with well-being (p<0.001). The relationship between health-related quality of life and well-being was also significant (r=0.361; p<0.001). The results of the structural equation method also confirmed the significance of the causal relationships between the research variables (Table 3 and Chart 1). The results of fitting the research model are given in Table 4. According to the results, the current research model had a good fit (RMSEA=0.07).
MAIN COMPARISION to the SIMILAR STUDIES
On average, the results showed that men and women had a lower level of physical activity than the value recommended by WHO of 60 minutes of moderate-to-severe physical activity. Also, the results showed that half of the personnel of the Tehran police Headquarter did not have suitable physical activity for physical and mental health. These results are consistent with the findings of previous research [6-9] and indicate the relatively low level of physical activity of the personnel of the Tehran police Headquarter. Regarding gender differences in physical activity, the results of this research showed that men participated significantly more than women in physical activity. These results are consistent with previous findings [26-28] and indicate that strategies to promote physical activity among police headquarter personnel should have a special emphasis on women's physical activity. ... [29, 30]. The results of the research showed that health-related quality of life in Tehran police Headquarter personnel was at an average level, which are consistent with the previous studies by Dosic et al., Zhang et al., Lee C and Russell, as well as the study by Rejeski and Mihalko [14-17] and indicate relatively low levels of health-related quality of life among adults. The average level of health-related quality of life in police headquarter personnel is probably related to job difficulty or financial components. In addition, no significant gender difference was observed regarding health-related quality of life. These findings are not following the results of previous studies and show that men had a relatively better perception of quality of life than women [18]. These differences may be due to the relatively difficult working conditions of the male and female police headquarter personnel. The results of structural equation modeling showed that greater participation in physical activity had a positive and significant effect on health-related quality of life in police headquarter personnel; these findings are following the results of previous studies [14-18]. Therefore, physical activity is related to the improvement of the quality of life in police headquarter personnel. Regarding well-being, the results of the research showed that the perception of well-being among the employees of Tehran Police headquarter was at an average level. The present findings are consistent with the findings of Lee and Russell's study as well as Fox et al.'s study [16, 19]. Similar to the perception of quality of life, the average level of well-being in police headquarter personnel can also be related to job difficulty or financial components. Similar to the quality of life, no significant gender difference was observed regarding the perception of well-being. These findings are not following the results of previous studies that showed that men had a relatively better perception of well-being than women [16, 19], which could mainly be related to the relatively difficult working conditions of both male and female police headquarter personnel. The results of structural equation modeling showed that greater participation in physical activity had a positive and significant effect on the sense of well-being in police headquarter. These findings are following the results of previous studies [16, 19]. Physical activity can improve people's well-being by influencing the individual's standards and opinions in life and promoting independence, control, and mastery over the surrounding environment. Doing physical activity not only improves the physical condition but also improves the personality, psychological and social dimensions. In addition, exercise and physical activity are effective in expressing emotions and feelings, also increasing self-confidence and a sense of hope and humor [16, 17]. All these components can be considered part of a person's well-being.
LIMITATION
One of the limitations of the present study was that physical activity was measured using a self-report questionnaire, which can be biased. Also, the socio-economic status of the research subjects was not investigated.
SUGGESTIONS
Socio-economic status can be one of the factors affecting people's participation in physical activity and its consequences such as physical and mental health. It is suggested that in future research, physical activity be measured using accelerometer tools that objectively measure physical activity. It is also suggested that the socio-economic status of employees and its relationship with their participation in physical activity be investigated.
CONCLUSIONS
The physical activity of police headquarter personnel is less than the World Health Organization's recommended of 60 minutes of moderate-to-severe physical activity per day, and women also have less physical activity than men. Also, physical activity has a positive effect on the quality of life and well-being of police headquarter, which highlights the role of regular physical activity in improving the quality of life of these employees.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
We thank all the personnel of the Police headquarter who participated in this research.
CONFLICT of INTEREST
The authors state that there is no conflict of interest in the present study.
FUNDING SOURCES
This study had no financial support. |
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| ISSN: | 2228-6241 2383-3483 |