A REGRESSION ANALYSIS
ON THE IMPACT OF SMOKING, LEVEL OF EXERCISE, WEIGHT ON MEDICAL COST. (A CASE
STUDY OF FEDERAL MEDICAL CENTER OWERRI)
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background of the
study
The
increase in the number of people who are ill in the various health
establishments has risen geometrically overtime. Most of these illnesses may be
as a result of unhealthy lifestyles and habits. Amongst this various unhealthy
lifestyles and habits are smoking, lacks of exercise, weight, poor dietary just
to mention but a few. In Nigeria specifically, a lot has been said about
smoking and lack of exercise. Smokers as they say are liable to die young,
though a lot of publicity has gone out to this regard, most smokers have rather
not taken heed to this meaning but have rather seen it as a normal jingle
without really pondering over it them to make changes in their life styles and
bad habits.
Lack
of exercise “as deadly as smoking” is now causing as many deaths as
smoking in Nigeria and across the world.This
has also contributed to the unprecedented rise in illness across Nigeria.
Strong evidence
shows that lack of exercise which leads to physical inactivity increases the
risk of many major adverse health conditions including:
Death (from any
cause), coronary heart disease, high blood pressure, stroke, metabolic syndrome
(including obesity and abnormal blood cholesterol levels), breast and colon
cancer, depression etc.
It
estimated that overall, physical inactivity which is caused by lack of exercise
caused more than 5.3 million of the 57 million deaths that occurred worldwide
in 2008 which Nigeria is not excluded. The researchers suggest this is
equivalent to the 5 million deaths attributed to smoking in 2000 (Kingsley
2012: 42).
It
is generally believed that a regular exercise helps to
·
reduce the risk of
falling ill
·
controls your weight
·
Improve your mental
health and mood
·
Improve your ability to do daily activities
·
Increase your
chances of living longer, etc.
There may also be a relationship between the weight of a person
and the propensity to fall ill. This study helps to explore those unique
relationship between the various parameters mentioned earlier in this study.
1.2. Aims and objectives of
the study
The following are the objectives of the study:
1.
To know if
there is a relationship between smokers and their weight.
2.
To study
the impact of smoking and lack of exercise on health conditions of patients.
3.
To know
the nature of relationship between smoking, weight, level of exercise on the
medical cost of patients.
4.
To study
the relationship between weight and health care cost of patients.
1.3. Significance of the
study
The importance of this study seeks to unveil the impact of
smoking, level of exercise, and weight on medical cost of patients in Nigeria.
With the view of advising the generality of Nigeria based on the statistical
discoveries made from the study.
This study also seeks to study the relationship between weight of
patients on medical cost of patients, smokers and their medical cost and level
of exercise of patients and their corresponding medical cost. All these would
assist in advising smokers and people who don’t exercise based on the findings
from the study.
1.4. Scope of the study
The scope of this study is centered on the impact of smoking, less
exercising on the weight and health care cost of patients using the federal
medical center Owerri Imo state as a case study.
1.5. Limitation of the
study
Time constraint
The major limitation of the
study is the time constraint, the researcher was inhibited by time as there was
no enough time to cover all patients in the hospital.
Financial constraint
Another constraint of this study is financial constraints, lack of
adequate finances in printing enough questionnaires for the patients and to
equally interview the health practitioners.
1.6. Research
Questions
1.
Is smoking dangerous to health?
2.
Is there a relationship between smoking and poor health condition.
3.
Is there a relationship between lack of exercise and poor health condition?
4.
Do you think that smoking, lack of regular exercise affect the weight and
health condition adversely?
5.
Suggest ways of making smokers quit smoking.
1.7. Research
Hypotheses
Hypothesis 1
H0:
there is no relationship between smoking and high medical cost of patients.
H0:
there is a relationship between smoking and high medical cost of patients.
Hypothesis 2
H0:
there is no relationship between lack of regular exercise and high medical cost
of patients.
H0:
there is a relationship between lack of regular exercise and high medical cost
of patients.
Hypothesis 3
H0:
there is no relationship between smoking, lack of regular exercise, weight and
medical cost of patients
H0:
there is a relationship between smoking, lack of regular exercise, weight and
medical cost of patients
1.8. Definition of Terms
Smoking:the
activity or habit of smoking cigarettes.
Exercise:a
physical or mental activity that you do to stay healthy or become stronger. It
can equally be a set of movements or activities that you do to stay healthy
Weight:how
heavy somebody or something is which can be measured in kilograms or pounds.
Medical:connected
with illness and injury and their treatment.
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