Dietary patterns in a nursing team measured by principal component analysis

Abstract

Objective: To characterize the dietary pattern of nursing professionals at a public hospital in Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brazil. Method: A sectional study with nursing professionals (nurses, technicians and nursing assistants). Two 24-hour food recall records were applied, totaling 459 foods, being reduced to 24 food groups. Food patterns were identified using the Principal Component Analysis technique, followed by orthogonal varimax rotation. A Scree Plot graph indicated three factors to be extracted and loads > +0.30 were adopted to define dietary patterns. Results: A total of 309 professionals participated. The sample consisted of 85.8% of female individuals. The patterns were named “traditional” which included rice (0.747), beans (0.702) and meat (0.713); “healthy”: vegetables (0.444), greens (0.450), fruits (0.459), bananas and oranges (0.379), and “snacks”: sugar (0.661), bread (0.471), cakes and cookies (0.334), non-alcoholic drinks (0.727). Conclusion: The results highlight the “traditional” food pattern of Brazilian food consumption based on the combination of rice, beans and meat. Future studies may investigate the effect of dietary patterns on health outcomes among nursing workers.

Dietary Patterns, Occupational Stressors and Body Composition of Hospital Workers: A Longitudinal Study Comparing before and during the COVID-19 Pandemic

“…Food pattern C (bread and cereals, fats, milk and dairy products, beverages) was represented by foods that, based on well-established choices made by individuals, are not foods capable of impacting body weight. Such findings are consistent with other studies carried out with health professionals in Iran [37], Brazil [11] and Mexico [12].…”

“…Both the dietary pattern and stressors 2 of 16 at work are environmental factors that contribute to the complexity of body composition. Thus, the assessment of dietary patterns is a more appropriate alternative to food ingestion evaluation, as it does not consider only the nutrients ingested but also the cultural, social, economic and demographic factors, revealing that eating is complex and dynamic [11], and reflects on how different foods (and nutrients) are combined in an individual's usual diet [12,13].…”