MALTESE DOCTORS AND THEIR WELLBEING

SECTION 1: STATING THE PROBLEM

Medical doctors are fundamental in promoting healthy behaviors, smoking cessation, and
maintaining a healthy lifestyle within the general population. The habits of these
practitioners will not only have an impact on their own wellbeing but will also impose
implications on the patient’s care. The life of a medical doctor can be stressful being both
mentally and physically exhausting. Due to such difficulties, do doctors actually practice
what they preach? I will be conducting this study to answer two pertinent questions;

1. How many doctors engage in smoking and/or are obese?

2. How many of the practitioners suffer from clinical depression?

Key matters: wellbeing/obesity/ clinical depression/ smoking/ mental health

SECTION 2: RESEARCH PROJECT RATIONALE AND ISSUES

Clinical depression.

Depression is a worldwide known mental disorder experienced by approximately more than

264 million persons ranging from youths to the elderly. Everybody can be a victim of
depression yet still this illness is underdiagnosed and underestimated. This mental illness
can be manifested in a person through various ways and at different levels of impact.
Depression can be seen as a spectrum which can vary to being either temporary and mild at
one end or persistent and grievous on the other. Being clinically depressed is different from
just experiencing the normal mood swings or feeling sad when faced with the normal life
challenges. Clinical depression is more severe having more persistent symptoms such as
unexplained pains, lack of energy and restlessness.

Medical doctors, because of the nature of their jobs, experience a higher chance of suffering
from mental health challenges leading to depression. The mental health of our Maltese
medical doctors is neglected by both the general public and even by themselves.

 https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/20786190.2019.1610232
 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4859009/
 https://mecp.springeropen.com/articles/10.1186/s43045-020-00066-5

https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/depression/expert-answers/clinical-
depression/faq-20057770

https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/depression

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4859009/
Obesity.

Obesity can be defined as excessive fat accumulating which may impair health. Medical
practitioners are there to set an example for their patients, however, they are still not
impervious to the obesity crisis.