Effects of a Multidisciplinary Intervention on the Motor Physical Fitness of Health Care Professionals.

Introduction.
Low physical fitness is assumed to be one of the major factors contributing to an increased incidence
of cardiovascular disease, diabetes mellitus, obesitas, musculoskeletal problems, .... Burton et al. (2004) indicate in their European Guidelines for Prevention of Low Back Pain (LBP) that increasing physical fitness level is the most effective action in primary prevention for LBP. The nursing population is very sensitive for LBP. Purpose. The first aim of this study was to investigate the immediate effects of a multidisciplinary intervention in a hospital setting on the physical fitness of health care personnel. The second aim was to investigate if these effects remain six months after the intervention.
Methodology.
Sixty health care professionals (50 F and 10 M) volunteered to participate to this study. The Eurofit test battery (EUT) was taken before the intervention, just after and after a period of 6 months. The EUT consists
out of 8 tests: Flamingo Balance (FLB), Plate tapping (PLT), Sit and Reach (SAR), Standing Broad Jump (SBJ), Sit Up (SUP), Bent Arm Hang (BAH), Handgrip (HGR) and a Shuttle Run (SHR). BMI and waist circumference were added. The 5 month intervention consisted out of convincing the hospital management, improving general health aspects, an ergonomic approach and working on the psycho-social level according to Zinzen et al. (2000). One-way ANOVA with the Scheffé post hoc test was used (pResults.
Most participants experienced the EUT test as a rather heavy physical performance resulting in a reduced participating level for the post tests : 29 (24F and 5M) right after and 21 (16F and 5M) after six months. All datasets were overall normally distributed. For the total group only the FLB (25.5±27.3 >12.9±4.8 >11.4±4.8) and PLT (12.07±1.9 >10.7±1.5 >10.8±1.7) improved significant after the intervention and stayed on the
same level after six months. In the male group no significant differences could be noted between test sessions whilst in the female group FLB (25.9±27.6 > 13.3±4.8 >10.9±4.7), PLT (12.2±2.0 > 10.9±1.5 > 10.9) and HGR (340.8±65.7 > 395.4±61.9 >390.8±74.4) significantly improved after the intervention and stayed better. The SBJ in the females improved (127.7±27.2 > 143.5±25.5 > 142.9±20.0) although only significant immediately after the intervention.
Conclusions.
Improvements on equilibrium speed of limb movement, static arm strength and explosive leg power could be noted in the female nurses. The small male sample size could be the reason for not finding any improvements.