Evaluation of Food Security Status and Mediterranean Diet Adherence of Air Services Employees in İstanbul, Türkiye

Year 2024, Volume: 14 Issue: 2, 414 - 422, 28.06.2024

Begüm Rabia Demircioğlu , Zeynep Begüm Kalyoncu Atasoy

https://doi.org/10.33808/clinexphealthsci.1326381

Abstract

Objective: Since airports operate in foreign currency and are far from cities, employees could be limited to purchase food and beverages from more expensive sales points. Additionally, air services employees may be at risk for poor nutritional status due to job-specific unhealthy dietary habits and lifestyle behaviors. Yet, air services as workplaces have been understudied in terms of nutritional environment. Hence, in this study the aim is to assess food security (FS) and Mediterranean diet adherence (MDA) among Atatürk and Istanbul airports’ employees.
Methods: The face-to-face cross-sectional study was conducted with a non-probability sample of 381 employees that were recruited between February and May 2022. FS was assessed with Food Insecurity Experience Scale and MDA with Mediterranean Diet Adherence Screener (MEDAS). Regression analyses were conducted to analyze the independent variables affecting FS.
Results: MDA was found to be 7.6±2.07 and most of the participants were within a moderate adherence range. While 14.6% (n: 55) of the participants have moderate or severe food insecurity, 2.9% (n: 11) have severe food insecurity. The regression analyses revealed the factors affecting food insecurity as education, income, smoking, use of medication, and dieting status (p<.05). On the other hand, MDA was not found to be an effective factor of food security status of air services employees.
Conclusion: Ultimately, addressing food insecurity among airport staff will require systemic changes to ensure that all workers are paid fair wages and have access to essential benefits like affordable food and supportive food environment that encourages healthy eating.

Keywords

Food security, Mediterranean diet, workplace nutrition, airport employees, Türkiye

Supporting Institution

This research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors.

Project Number

This study was approved by Ethics Committee of Istanbul Aydin University Non-Interventional Clinical Research Ethics Committee (Date: 14/02/2022, Number of Approval: B.30.2.AYD.0.00.00-050.06.04/30)

Thanks

The authors express their sincere gratitude to all participants who agreed to take part in the study. The authors would also like thank Dr. Naci Murat (eistatistik.com Company) for his help regarding the statistical analyses of this study.

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