Major Dietary patterns and related factors among workers of Oil Terminal Company in Kharg Island, Iran

This study was conducted to identify the dietary patterns among workers of Oil Terminals Company and to assess their association with socio-demographic and lifestyle factors. The sample size (392) was estimated by considering minimum correlation (r=0. 2) between variables. This cross-sectional study was conducted in a representative sample of workers selected by a stratified random-sampling method (alloffices of the company). The head of company provided a list of workers, and the proportionof each center was specified via ni=ki/N × n [ni=number of participants from each center, ki=number of each center workers, N=number company workers, n= sample size (392)]. Dietary pattern was identified by valid food frequency questionnaire containing 168 food items with specific serving size consumed by Iranians. Major dietary patterns analyzed by factor analysis. General characteristics across tertiles were compared by ANOVA and chi-square tests were used where appropriate. In addition, we used multivariate logestic regression tests to assess the relationship between demographic, socioeconomic and lifestyle variables and the adherence to the dietary patterns. Two major dietary patternswere extracted: «Healthy pattern» characterized by high consumption of fruits, fish, yellow vegetables, potato, garlic, whole cereals, yogurt drink, and salt. The second one named «unhealthy pattern» characterized by high consumption of soft drinks, sugar, mayonnaise, sweets, eggs, butter, and processed meat, high- fat dairy products, organ meat, French fries, refined cereals, snacks and artificial juice. Work hours were positively correlated (b=0. 14; p<0. 01) and being single (b=-0. 4, p<0. 05) and full time work in comparison with part-time work (b=-0. 5, p<0. 01) was negatively correlated with healthy dietary pattern, whereas age (b=-0. 3, p<0. 05), dieting (b=-0. 4, p<0. 01) and history of hyperlipidemia had negative correlation (b=-0. 41, p<0. 01) with unhealthy dietary pattern. Our findings show the association between socio-demographic, lifestyle factors and dietary patterns of the workers