Introduction Health care workers experience the implications of health and disease every day, including the crucial role of health-damaging behaviour on morbitity and mortality. This study was conducted to analyse the health behaviour and comorbidities in health care workers with focus on gender differences.

Methods In this study we analysed the clinical data of n=273 health care workers (166 males, 107 females) who presented in our occupational medicine outpatient unit. The focus of this study was to assess cardiovascular risk factors, such as obesity, smoking, or physical inactivity as well as diseases of the musculosceletal system and mental illness.

Result Female health care workers presented a higher trend of smoking in comparison to male health care workers (43,0% vs 32,5%). Furthermore, female health care workers showed significant less physical activity in comparison to their male colleagues (49,0% vs 71,8%, p>0,001). Musculosceletal diseases were common in both groups (19,6% for female vs 18,1% for male), but mental illness was significantly more frequent in females (6,5% vs 0,0% for males, p<0,05).

Discussion Female health care workers need special consideration in the implementation of preventive measures to reduce health-damaging behaviour. The higher proportion of mental illness in female in comparison to male workers might be due to a selection bias.