Farmers/foresters: Healthiest behaviors

WASHINGTON, Sept. 7 (UPI) -- Farmers and foresters lead all occupations in healthy behaviors such as eating healthy and exercising, a U.S. survey indicates.

The Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index indicates farmers and foresters are also most likely to exercise for at least 30 minutes three or more days per week.

Construction workers and business owners are a distant second and third, respectively, while those in sales are the least likely to report healthy eating habits. Clerical and manufacturing workers have the lowest scores in the frequency of exercise.

Transportation workers have the highest level of obesity and the third-highest smoking rate, putting them at highest risk for developing chronic conditions such as diabetes and heart disease and making them more susceptible to cancer than workers in other occupations. Construction and installation workers have the highest smoking rates and fairly high obesity rates, while professionals have the lowest smoking and obesity rates, the survey indicates.

Business owners have the highest level of job satisfaction, while clerical workers have the lowest score on being able to use their strengths at work and those in manufacturing have the lowest job satisfaction.

The findings are based on more than 123,520 telephone interviews with national employed U.S. adults, conducted Jan. 2 to Aug. 19. The margin of error is 2 percentage points.