title: Health behaviors: is there any distinction for teachers? A cross-sectional nationwide study.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Health behaviors, as important modifiable determinants of health, are consistently targeted by prevention messages. Teachers, as educators and role models, may play a key-role in bringing such messages to children and adolescents. It is not clear which areas of prevention could be improved in collaboration with teachers to promote healthy behaviors at the population level through health education in schools.
  
  
  METHODS
  to evaluate teacher's health awareness, we compared their health/risk behaviors to those of non-teachers, taking into account demographic and socioeconomic factors that could confound crude differences. We used data from the 2010 Health Barometer, a cross-sectional nationally-representative French survey conducted by telephone among 27,653 persons aged 15-85. Adjusting sequentially for potential confounders, we compared six indicators of lifestyle and risky conducts (at-risk drinking, current smoking, cannabis use, gambling, corpulence, sleep duration) between teachers (n = 725) and two comparison groups: other occupations (n = 12,483) on the one hand, and other intermediate and managerial/professional occupations (n = 6,026) on the other.
  
  
  RESULTS
  In the fully-adjusted models, teachers were less likely than other occupations to smoke, to have used cannabis in the last 12 months, to gamble regularly and to be overweight or obese. When restricting the comparison group to other occupations belonging to the same socio-professional category, differences were attenuated, but remain highly significant for tobacco, cannabis and gambling. No significant differences were observed between teachers and non-teachers regarding alcohol use and sleep duration, once important confounders had been adjusted for.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Our results suggest that teachers behave on the whole more healthily than other adults with a similar demographic and socioeconomic profile. The absence of a teacher distinction toward at-risk drinking needs to be examined in more detail.
authors: MGEN Foundation for Public Health, Paris, France.
authors: Fabien
authors: F
authors: Gilbert
authors: National Institute for Prevention and Health Education (INPES), St Denis, France.
authors: Jean-Baptiste
authors: JB
authors: Richard
authors: MGEN Foundation for Public Health, Paris, France.
authors: Pascale
authors: P
authors: Lapie-Legouis
authors: French Monitoring Center for Drugs and Drug Addiction (OFDT), St Denis, France; Centre de recherche Psychotropes, Santé mentale, Société (CESAMES), CNRS UMR 8136, INSERM U611, Université René Descartes Paris V / Sorbonne Paris Cité, Paris, France.
authors: François
authors: F
authors: Beck
authors: MGEN Foundation for Public Health, Paris, France.
authors: Marie-Noël
authors: MN
authors: Vercambre
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D005178:Faculty / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D005260:Female; D015438:Health Behavior; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D008962:Models, Theoretical; D012309:Risk-Taking; D055815:Young Adult