Direct-care staff body mass index in a state mental hospital: staff obesity may impair role modeling for patients.
BACKGROUND
Direct-care staff at institutions providing long-term care serve as both caretakers and role models for their patients. The authors report a second study showing that major portions of such direct-care staff have significant problems themselves with overweight and obesity. This may be another changeable factor in the complex dynamics governing overweight and obesity among patients with chronic mental illness.


METHODS
The authors recorded age, sex, and race, and measured height and weight during a typical 8-h shift among 50 direct-care staff at a long-term care psychiatric institution. Direct-care staff were defined as those members of the nursing staff who spent at least 4 h of their 8-h shift in direct contact with their patients.


RESULTS
Of the 50 direct-care staff, 44 were black females. The authors focused on this subgroup in our report. These 44 black female direct-care staff had a mean body mass index (BMI) of 33.8+/-8.3 kg/m(2) and 27 (61.4%) were obese. Six of them (13.6%) were morbidly obese.


CONCLUSIONS
Overweight and obesity may be a greater problem for staff providing care for patients with chronic mental illness than for the patients themselves. The authors believe studies are needed to test the hypothesis that staff obesity may impair staff ability to help obese patients lose weight. In our two studies to date, black women functioning as direct-care staff were highly vulnerable to overweight and obesity.
Vieweg
W Victor R
WV
Department of Psychiatry, Medical College of Virginia Campus, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, VA, USA. vvieweg@vcu.edu
Maxfield
Maxcine
M
Lewis
Robert E
RE
Pennington
Brigitte
B
Pandurangi
Anand
A
Silverman
Joel J
JJ
D000328:Adult; D044383:Black People; D015992:Body Mass Index; D001835:Body Weight; D005260:Female; D006282:Health Personnel; D006778:Hospitals, Psychiatric; D006801:Humans; D008875:Middle Aged; D009765:Obesity; D011369:Professional-Patient Relations