Abstract

Author(s): Andrea CALDER

Background: Feeding habits and nutritional condition of workers must be considered in the workplace, with the aim of promoting a healthy lifestyle in preventing chronic diseases and improving the quality of life.

Objectives: to know the nutritional status of a sample of workers in a company, along with their degree of adherence to the Mediterranean diet and other factors related to lifestyle.

Methods: It is a cross-sectional descriptive study based on the data collection of 634 workers who voluntarily attended the consultation of a Dietitian-Nutritionist within your company. It has been evaluated: the nutritional status, adherence to the Mediterranean diet by the PREDIMED questionnaire, and other factors such as lifestyle, blood tests and related pathologies.

Results: The main reason for consultation was the nutritional assessment followed by weight loss and hypercholesterolemia. 55.21% of the sample had excess weight (40.22% overweight and 14.99% obesity) according to the BMI; 62.15% had an ICT> 0.50; 64.04% excess body fat according to Bray (17) and 55.52% according to Gallagher (18). In addition, 29.34% had low adherence to the Mediterranean diet. Subjects with less adherence to this dietary pattern had higher BMI (P = 0.007) and percentage of body fat according to Bray (p = 0.007). 39.27% were sedentary, coinciding with those who had higher ICT (0.002) and higher BMI (p = 0.003).

Conclusion: the prevalence of overweight and obesity was alarmingly high, especially in men. Greater adherence to the Mediterranean diet according to the PREDIMED questionnaire and greater practice of physical activity was associated with a better nutritional condition in general. The importance of the figure of the Dietitian-Nutritionist in the companies for a greater nutritional education stands out.