Do we practise what we preach?
There are recommendations regarding many facets of lifestyle. We proposed to look at hospital doctors' habits in East Yorkshire.


METHODS
A simple questionnaire was sent out to 574 doctors in the Hull and East Yorkshire Hospitals NHS Trust. Non-responders were re-mailed. Age, sex, grade, specialty, number of portions of fruit and vegetable per day, alcohol intake, smoking, exercise and hours worked.


RESULTS
301 doctors (238 males, 60 females) responded (response rate 58%). Approximately half of doctors who responded were consultants. Few respondents smoked (6.6%), and the mean alcohol consumption, 8.35 units per week (SE 0.54), was less than the recommended limits for men and women. Most doctors fell short of the "recommended" 5 portions of fruit and vegetables per day (median 3 per day) and nearly half worked more than 56 hours per week. Most respondents took at least the recommended amount of exercise per week (112 SE25 minutes) although 26% of doctors took no exercise at all.
Peel
R K
RK
Hull Royal Infirmary. robpeel@doctors.org.uk
Bhandari
S
S
D005260:Female; D015438:Health Behavior; D006281:Health Occupations; D006801:Humans; D008019:Life Style; D008137:Longitudinal Studies; D008297:Male; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires