Keywords |
| Food Habits, Employee, Cardiovascular Risk Factor, Iran |
Introduction |
| As stated in past decades, cardiovascular
disease (CVD) is one of the most causes of
mortality in worldwide 1. Also CVD account
for more than 40% of mortality in Iran 2. |
| Iran, like other countries in South Asian has a
higher prevalence of CVD risk factors as
compared to other parts of the world 3-4.
Although it is well accepted that food habits
represent a very important component in the etiology of CVD risk factors, including type 2
diabetes 5, hypertension 6, and obesity 7. But
from our review of the literature, there is little
known about employee population with
respect to how their food habits are related to
CVD risk factors. |
| To provide new data for policy planners and
health education programs, we evaluated the food habits and their association with
cardiovascular risk factors in employees. |
Material and Method |
Study population |
| A descriptive, cross-sectional study, including
employees of offices in the city of Sarvabad,
the west of Iran in 2010 was conducted. A
total of 577 employees aged 22 to 54 years
were randomly selected from the 30 offices
and invited to participate. A total of 455
employees completed the survey and
examination. (Response rate was 79.0%).
Written consent to participate was obtained
before data collection. |
Data collection |
| Data were collected between October and
December 2010 by using questionnaires
including demographic factors and dietary
habits. The individuals' food habits were
ascertained using an 11-item food frequency
questionnaire. Frequency of consumption of
various food groups and beverages (i.e., meat,
fish, milk, fruits, vegetables, cereals, oil, salt,
fast food, rice, fried foods and wholemeal
bread) on daily, weekly or monthly basis was
assessed. |
| Then, the average score of the answers to
these questions (11-item) was calculated for
all subjects in order to evaluate of the food
habits in employee population. |
Anthropometric measurements |
| The weight and height were measured to
obtain body mass index (BMI) scores (kg/m2).
Subjects with a BMI ≥ 30 are considered as
obese. |
| Diabetes and hypertension was defined as
self-reported current treatment with
antidiabetic and antihypertensive medication,
respectively 8-9. |
| Smoking status and family history of CVD
were assessed by self-report. |
Statistical analysis |
| Data were analyzed using STATA 11
(StataCorp, College Station, TX, USA), and
were expressed as means for continuous
variables, frequencies for categorical, and
standard error of the mean. The Student t test
was used to compare means with 95%
confidence interval (CI) between dichotomous
variables such as gender, smoking status and
hypertension status. Statistically significant
differences were considered at P < 0.05. |
Results |
| The general characteristics of the study
participants are presented in Table 1. A total
of 455 employees were included in the study
of which 25% [95% CI: 20.6, 28.5] were
female with mean age of 34 years (male 33.1
vs. female 38.1, P < 0.001). The mean of body
weight, BMI and occupation time was 71.0 ±
13.1 kg and 25.3 ± 3.7 kg and 10.7 ± 7.6 year
respectively. Overall, the mean consumption
of food items was 7.2 ± 1.8. |
| About 1.5% of employees had elevated blood
pressure, 10.5% were smokers, 11.2% had
family history of CVD, 5.9% were diabetes
(male 3.7% vs. female 12.5%, P < 0.001) and
9.2% were obese. |
| Comparison of mean dietary habits by CVD
risk factors are summarized in Table 2. The
mean of dietary habits of 11-item was
significantly higher in the females, obese and
diabetes, (P < 0.001 for all comparisons) but
the mean of dietary habits in smoker
employees was lower than in non-smoker
ones, (P < 0.001). |
Discussion |
| Our study demonstrated the prevalence of
CVD risk factors such as obesity, smoking, diabetes, hypertension and family history of
CVD were 9.2%, 10.5%, 5.9%, 1.5%, and
11.2%, respectively. In addition, the mean
consumption of food items was 7.2. |
| The first important finding of our study was
that the estimated prevalence of obesity,
diabetes, smoking and hypertension in an
employee population is lower than general
population of Iran 3-4, 10. |
| Although the majority of the study subjects
display good eating habits, the results
confirmed a significant difference between
genders. The results of the previous similar
studies confirmed our findings. Fonseca et al
11 evaluated the eating habits among
employees in a government-owned bank in the
State of Rio de Janeiro. They indicated that
men, and particularly younger men, consumed
more foodstuffs that were rich in saturated fat,
salt, and sugar as compared to women. |
| We found that the mean of dietary habits in
diabetes is significantly higher than in nondiabetes.
As stated in another study 12 that
dietary patterns are an important risk factor for
type 2 diabetes, accordingly this indicated
that diabetes patients had more concerns about
their self-care. |
| In studies on the dietary habits of smoker 13
compared to those of non-smoker individuals,
smoker subjects had poor eating habits, as
reported in present study. |
| Because aging is a risk factor for CVD, it is
expected that increasing age would be
associated with good eating habits. On the
other hand, we found a significantly low mean
of dietary habits in individuals aged > 40
years compared to aged < 40 years. |
| Hypertension is a common problem in Iran.
National survey data indicate that 26.6 percent
of Iranian adults have hypertension 4.
However, Wang et al reported statistically
significant relationship between dietary
factors and hypertension 6. But our study was
in concordance with the previous
observations. |
| Our study had several limitations including:
First, in a cross-sectional studies causality
inference to be limited. Second, self-report
may underestimate smoking status and dietary
intake 14-15. Third, non-responders may differ
significantly from study participants. For
example obese persons may be less willing to
agree to anthropometric measurement or
smokers might have less interest in health
promotion. In conclusion, according to the
stated items results may not be generalizable
to the whole of Iranian employees. |
Conclusion |
| Majority of employees had high prevalence of
cardiovascular risk factors such as obesity,
diabetes, smoking and family history of CVD.
Therefore, the results suggest that nutrition
education for employees needs to be more
focused on the improvement of dietary habits
of staff. |
| Conflict of Interest: The authors have no
conflicts of interest to declare. |
 |
 |
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