Thai physicians health survey.

Physicians often conduct research on other occupations' health or general populations' health, but their health has hardly been studied systematically. The authors conducted a cross-sectional descriptive survey on 440 physicians systematically selected from their medical license numbers. The response rate was 86.4% (380 out of 440). Two-hundred and twenty-nine were male, and 151 were female. Their average age was 40.8 years (range: 22-74). Most of them were Buddhists (93.9%), specialists (64.2%), married only once and still lived with their spouses (59.5%), and concurrently practiced medicine (95.5%). Their overall satisfaction as physicians was 60.2% high, and 37.2% moderate. Their average sleep time was 6-8 hours per night for 58.9%. Most had eye problems (74.9%) and most were refractive errors such as myopia. Most (63.8%) of them did not have any prevalent diseases. Whereas those who had diseases had (in order) allergy, hypertension, asthma, diabetes, and cancer. Their current illnesses included respiratory tract infection. Most physicians did not smoke (94.2%) nor drink alcohol (70.5%). Most of them were not vegetarians (60.4%), did not eat fast food (99.2%). Interestingly, 41.4% of them were accounted for spending less than twice per week for exercise. As expected, 23.7% of them were exposed to blood, 14.5% to respiratory tract secretion, and 13.7% to pus/secretion from wounds. This study serves as a basis for health promotion approach to medical community and does create awareness of health among Thai physicians.