Abstract:
Background: Nursing officers in tertiary healthcare face with long duty hours and stress, often
leading to unhealthy dietary habits and common gastrointestinal (GI) symptoms. This greatly
affects their health and work efficiency, however, research on GI symptoms among nursing
officers in Sri Lanka is scarce.
Objectives: To determine the prevalence and contributing factors of GI symptoms and their
impact on quality of life (QOL) among nursing officers in a tertiary care hospital in Sri Lanka
Methods: A descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted among 296 nursing officers working
at Teaching Hospital Karapitiya (THK). Data were collected on GI symptoms, dietary habits,
work schedule, sleep quality and quality of life (QOL) using a self-administered questionnaire.
Fifteen GI conditions were assessed in the questionnaire and each participant was given a GI
symptom score considering their history of GI symptoms in the past two months. Nurses
experiencing >5 GI symptoms were considered as having multiple GI symptoms. The overall
prevalence of GI symptoms was calculated based on the GI symptom score, and QOL was
assessed using World Health Organization Quality-of-Life Scale (WHOQOL-BREF).
Results: The overall prevalence of GI symptoms among nursing officers was 70% (n=206).
Hunger pain (81%) was the most commonly identified GI symptom and acid reflux, constipation
and upper GI discomfort also showed 62% of high prevalence. Marital status, skipping meals,
caffeine consumption, number of night shifts and sleep quality had a significant relationship
(p<0.05) with the GI symptoms. Logistic regression analysis retains skipping meals (OR=0.392)
and number of night shifts (OR=0.496) as the main factors contributing to GI symptoms (p<0.05).
Further, GI symptoms score was negatively correlated with all four domains (physical,
psychological, social and environmental) of WHOQOL-BREF scale (r=-0.298, -0.311, -0.225,
0.254, p<0.01).
Conclusions: The study shows that GI symptoms are highly prevalent among nursing officers at
THK which was mainly associated with skipping meals, number of night shifts, caffeine
consumption, marital status and sleep quality. Higher levels of GI symptoms have significant
negative impact on QOL of nursing officers.
