PHYSICAL ACTIVITY AND HEALTH-RELATED QUALITY OF LIFE OF HEALTHCARE WORKERS IN CROSS RIVER STATE, NIGERIA

This study described the relationship between physical activity and health-related quality of life (HRQoL) among healthcare workers in Cross River State, using an adapted World Health Organization Quality of Life-Brief Version (WHOQOL-BREF) questionnaire and the International Physical Activity Questionnaire-short form (IPAQ-SF) to assess 330 healthcare workers from ten (10) selected hospitals in Cross River State. A null hypothesis was formulated and tested at a 0.05 level of significance. The study adopted the Ex-post factor design and the sampling technique involved four stages of stratified, simple random and purposive sampling techniques. A simple linear regression statistical tool was used for data analysis. The results revealed that there was a significant influence of physical activity on the health-related quality of life of healthcare workers in Cross River State, with a relative variance of 65.7%. Based on these findings, it was recommended that all public health practitioners should not only redirect education towards preventive/risk reduction practices but also practice these risk reduction practices with good health-seeking behavior for early diagnosis to ensure the maintenance of desirable HRQoL.