Interplay Between Adherence to the Mediterranean Diet and Lipid Profile: A Comparative Survey Between Day-Time Healthcare and Non-healthcare Female Workers

Abstract

Introduction: Occupational physicians, as an aspect of the periodic health surveillance of workers prescribed by law, must develop preventive programs against adverse health-related occurrences (Legislative Decree 81/2008, art.25) to reduce major risk factors for non-communicable/chronic diseases. Eating habits play an important role in defining risk trajectories in the workplace.Methods: We randomly and cross-sectionally evaluated 147 females, of which 59 were healthcare workers (HCWs) and 88 were non-HCWs. The assessment included a dietary screening for adherence to the Mediterranean diet (MD) and a clinical baseline collection of major fluid biomarkers and anthropometric indicators for cardiovascular and metabolic risk.Results: The HCW group exhibited greater adherence to the MD than the non-HCW group. Nevertheless, they showed higher serum levels of triglycerides and total cholesterol. Menopause and type of work significantly and unfavorably affected triglyceride serum levels among HCWs.Conclusion: Greater preventive efforts are needed in the context of periodic health surveillance by occupational physicians. Disseminating additional information on a healthier lifestyle, particularly among female workers of perimenopausal age, is a key issue.

Reduction of Excessive Dietary Sodium Consumption: Effectiveness of a Prevention Intervention among Health Workers in a Large Italian Hospital

“…Similar results were reported in the MINISAL-SIIA study, in which excessive salt consumption was disclosed in 90% of men and 81% of women [ 3 ]. This difference could be explained, at least partly, by the target population of the present study, focused on HW, who have a greater awareness of the risk of an unbalanced diet than the general population [ 26 ].…”

Adherence to the Mediterranean dietary pattern among workers: a systematic review

“…In the remaining studies that included health professionals, the participants’ mean age ranged from 37.0 to 51.7 years, the percentage of males ranged from 28.0% to 51.9%, and two of these studies included only females (Leyva-Vela et al. , 2021; Di Lorenzo et al. , 2021) (Table 1).…”

“…Office/company employees and other workers (Table 2) : Studies with samples of employees from companies/offices/local government assessed adherence to the MDP with the MDS (score range from 0 to 55) (Di Lorenzo et al. , 2021; Papadaki et al.…”

“…The other studies with health professionals used the PREDIMED questionnaire (score range from 0 to 14) (Rapisarda et al, 2021;Sentenach-Carbo et al, 2019), the PREDIMED-PLUS Mediterranean dietary pattern questionnaire (score range from 0 to 17) (Leyva-Vela et al, 2021), the MEDAS (score range from 0 to 14) (Gonz alez-Sosa et al, 2021), the MDS (score range from 0 to 9 in one study, and score range from 0 to 55 in other two studies) (Carlos et al, 2020;Eleuteri et al, 2018;Di Lorenzo et al, 2021), a Diet Score (no score range information) (Tountas et al, 2007) and a Global adherence indicator (score range from 0 to 15) (B ejar Prado and Mesa Rodríguez, 2022). Overall, both male and female healthcare workers had low to moderate adherence to MDP (mean score of 4.6 6 2.3 among males and mean score of 4.8 6 1.9 among females, according to the PREDIMED questionnaire (Rapisarda et al, 2021); only 3% of the primary care physicians with high adherence, also according to the PREDIMED questionnaire (Sentenach-Carbo et al, 2019); mean score of 7.2 6 2.6 among nurses and nursing assistants, according to the PREDIMED-PLUS questionnaire (Leyva-Vela et al, 2021); 70.8% of doctors with low to moderate adherence, according to MDS (Carlos et al, 2020); mean score of 31.7 6 5.2 among primary caregivers (Eleuteri et al, 2018) and mean score of 35.8 6 4.7 (Di Lorenzo et al, 2021) also according to MDS; mean score of 6.0 6 2.2, according to a Global adherence indicator (B ejar Prado and Mesa Rodríguez, 2022)). However, in one study using MEDAS, 61.2% of the healthcare personnel had good adherence to this healthy dietary pattern (Gonz alez-Sosa et al, 2021).…”

“…The percentage of males ranged from 36.9% to 37.4%; however, two of these studies evaluated only males (Wirth et al, 2018;Kenfield et al, 2014) and four evaluated only females (Barbhaiya et al, 2021;Hirko et al, 2016;Hu et al, 2015;Jung et al, 2016). In the remaining studies that included health professionals, the participants' mean age ranged from 37.0 to 51.7 years, the percentage of males ranged from 28.0% to 51.9%, and two of these studies included only females (Leyva-Vela et al, 2021;Di Lorenzo et al, 2021)…”