Level of physical activity among nurses and its associated factors: A cross-sectional study.

Everything was measured at one point in time, so the study shows what went together, not what caused what. This matters most for the pain finding: nurses with more painful sites were also the more active, and the study cannot say whether activity helped, hurt, or had nothing to do with it. All the measures were self-reported, including height and weight, activity, sleep and pain, so people may have misremembered or given answers they thought sounded better. The activity measure also counts activity done at work, which is high in nursing. The full model explained only 12.2% of the variation in activity between nurses, so most of what drives their activity was not measured. Diet, the built environment, workplace culture and access to exercise facilities were not included. Data were collected in 2018 and 2019, before COVID-19 changed workloads, sleep and mental health for healthcare workers, so the picture may not match nursing today. All participants were hospital nurses in Jordan, so the results may not transfer to nurses elsewhere or to other health systems. Nurses who were invited but did not take part cited scheduling conflicts, workload or lack of interest, and they may differ in activity levels from those who did.

The project was funded by the Jordan University of Science and Technology through its Deanship of Research, grant number 2018/402. The authors declared no conflicts of interest. There was no commercial funder.

Do not read the finding that nurses with more painful body sites were also the more active ones as evidence that staying active eases musculoskeletal pain. Activity and pain were measured at the same point in time, so the study cannot show which came first, and the authors say the association could run either way.