Nutritional Status and Physical Activity Level of White-Collar Workers: An Island Example

Abstract

The conducted study aimed to determine the nutritional status and activity level of white-collar workers. 211 volunteers' demographic information, anthropometric measurements, and 3-day food recording were determined. The scales “Diet Quality Index-International (DQI-I)”, “Healthy Eating Index-2015 (HEI-2015)”, and “Dietary Approaches to Prevent Hypertension (DASH)” were used to determine the quality of the diets. The International Physical Activity Questionnaire-Short Form (IPAQ) was used to calculate the activity level of the participants. The average age of participants were 35.70 ± 9.36, while 70.6% were women. The average diet quality scores for DQI-I, HEI-2015, and DASH were 47.8 ± 9.79, 56.40±14.04, and, 2.70 ±1.29 respectively. The IPAQ average score was calculated as 851.44±1065.01 MET. The IPAQ results showed that only 13.3% of participants had sufficient activity levels. The physical activity level of the men was found to be significantly higher than that of the women (p<0.05). The activity levels of participants with good healthy eating index scores were also found to be statistically higher (p<0.001). In addition, participants with high DQI-I scores had significantly higher healthy eating habits with HEI-2015(p<0.001). The current study showed that white-collar workers had insufficient physical activity levels, however, sufficient levels of physical activity were correlated with better diet quality.

Keywords

• Physical activity
• diet quality
• white-collar workers
• nutrition

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