PRACTISING SPORTS AMONG DENTISTS IN BULGARIA
Table 1. Dependency between length of service and practicing sports among dentists. N=689 p<0,05
The results indicate a statistically significant
dependency between length of service and
practicing sports by the respondents.
With the increase of length of service the relative
share of those actively exercising drops. The
highest level of practicing sports is reported
among the age group 36-45 having 11-20 years
length of service (77.92%) (Fig. 3).
Figure 3. Practicing sports trend based on length of service
3.2. Dependency between weekly, daily workload
and practicing sports
We also focused on the dentists weekly and daily
workload related to practicing sports (Tables 2, 3).
Among the respondents having up to a 3-day
weekly workload practicing sports goes up to
54.84%, while for those with a 5-day workload
the figure is 65.16%, while for those with a
+5-day weekly workload group this figure is
68.42%. In all the three groups of daily and hourly
workload practicing sports exceeds 50%.
In case of a daily workload of less than 4 hours
this activity is 55.74%, 4-8 hours of workload
reports 66.35%, while this figure for those having
over 8 hours of workload the figure goes to
66.70%.
The results indicate a lack of a statistically significant
dependency between weekly and daily workload
and practicing sports by the dentists.
3.3. Dependency between health self-assessment
and practising sports
The relationship between health self-assessment
and practicing sports is also of interest (Table
4, Fig. 4). In case of poorer health self-assess-
ment practicing sports decreases. 78.44%
of respondents, self-assessing their health
as “excellent” practice sports regularly and
occasionally, as 54.03% of these self-assessing
their health as “satisfactory” practice sports. 66.8%
of respondents, self-assessing their health as “very
good” and “good” practice sports. This makes
us assume that practicing sports by the dentists
depends on their good health self-assessment.
The results indicate a statistically significant
dependency between health self-assessment and
practicing sports by the dentists.
3.4. Dependency between practicing sports and
muscle-skeletal pain
We also explored the association between
practicing sports and the presence of MSD-pain
(Table 5.) The largest groups, having provided
answers to both questions, covers 310 respondents
(from a total of 692), who experience pain due to
MSD but also practice sports “occasionally“.
The data in Table 5 reveal that out of about 2/3
(567) of the surveyed dentists, reporting the
presence of MSD provoked pain, 11.29% practice
sports on daily basis, and 54.67% - occasionally (a
total of 65.96%).
It gives us grounds to assume that the presence
of pain motivates dentists to engage in practicing
sports.
The results indicate a lack of a statistically significant
dependency between the presence of MSD type
pain and practicing sports by the dentists.
To support this statement we focused on the
dependency between practicing sports and the
pain intensity self-assessment (Table 6). Our data
reveal that those who most actively practice some
sport are those experiencing moderate (64.06%)
and mild pain intensity (34.37%). In the group
exercising “occasionally“ once again the most
active are those experiencing moderate (69.25%)
Table 4. Dependency between health self-assessment and practicing sports by dentists. N=693 p<0,05
PRACTISING SPORTS AMONG DENTISTS IN BULGARIA
Table 2. Dependency between the dentists weekly workload (in workdays) and practicing sports. N=695 p>0,05
Figure 4. Trends in practicing sports referenced to dentistv health self-assessment
Table 3. Dependency between the dentists daily workload (in hours) and practicing sports. N=695 p>0,05
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Table 5. Dependency between practicing sports and the presence of MSD type of pain. N=692 p>0,05
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