engleski

Mediterranean Diet In Relation To Body Mass Index And Waist-To-Hip Ratio Among Sedentary Group Of Croatian Workers From Mediterranean Region

Workplace is important domain for adults and it can have an important, positive or negative effect on workers’ health. The diet quality can significantly affect workers´ health. Although it was confirmed that Mediterranean diet as healthy dietary habit has protective effect on chronic diseases, but as rich in fat and starch it may be related to overweight. Prevention of overweight, obesity and related diseases is one of the public-health strategies. The aim of the study was to investigate the relationship between adherence to Mediterranean diet, body mass index (BMI) and waist-to-hip ratio (WHR) with regard to gender in a sedentary group of Croatian workers from Mediterranean region. The study participants were 122 employees (39.3% of men, 60.7% of women) at sedentary working place. An interviewer-administered validated food-frequency questionnaire was used to obtain data on the worker’s habitual diet and their anthropometric measures were also collected. The Mediterranean diet score (MDS) was derived on the basis of nine characteristics of the Mediterranean diet. Multiple linear regression analysis was applied to assess the association of MDS with BMI and WHR separately for men and women. There were 37.5% participants with normal BMI, all women ; 37.5% of participants were overweight, 25.0% were obese, mostly men. One third of examinees had WHR higher than recommended, mostly they were obese. It was found statistically positive correlation between BMI and intake of fish (r=0.66, p=0.001), legumes (r=0.64, p=0.001) and sweets (r=0.54, p=0.009) among men, while WHR statistically positive correlated with intake of cereals (r=0.36, p=0.039) and negatively with legumes (r=-0.46, p=0.006) among women. Women had better adherence to Mediterranean diet than men, and by age the score increased. In multiple linear regression model adjusted for age, body adiposity and total energy intake, the MDS was statistically significantly negatively related to BMI (β=-0.45, p<0.001) and WHR (β=-0.46, p<0.001) among men. Among women MDS was positively, but not significantly related to BMI (β=0.13, p=0.384) and WHR (β=0.14, p=0.352). This study confirmed that adherence to Mediterranean diet was higher among women, while among men higher BMI and WHR was associated with higher adherence to Mediterranean diet. The risk to being obese decreased with a better adherence to Mediterranean diet only among women. These results could help to develop strategies for weight-diseases control management at working place.

body mass index ; Mediterranean diet ; obesity ; waist-to-hip ratio ; workers

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