Introduction

Adequate nutrition is part of a healthy lifestyle in work environments.

Objectives

To characterize the dietary patterns of workers of a public university in Colombia and to determine the factors associated with it.

Materials and methods

Cross-sectional study conducted in 126 workers aged 18 to 64 years of age. Information was collected between August 2017 and June 2018 using a questionnaire on food consumption frequency in the last month. Bivariate analyses were performed to determine the association between the recommended consumption pattern for each food group and sociodemographic and occupational variables using the Pearson's chi-square or the Fisher's exact test and calculating prevalence ratios (PR) with their respective 95% confidence intervals (95%CI). A significance level of p<0.05 was considered.

Results

Of the 126 participants, 84.13%, 56.35%, 69.05%, 32.54%, 13.49%, and 84.13% complied with the recommendations for daily consumption of fruits, vegetables, milk and dairy products, eggs, dried fruit, and water, respectively, while 9.52% and 40.48% complied with the recommendations for weekly consumption of offal and legumes. Being 47 years old or younger was associated with a higher probability of consumption of fast foods (PR=2.24; p=0.00), soft drinks (PR=2.63; p=0.00), cold meats (PR=1.34; p=0.04), and artificial juices (PR=2.73; p=0.00); having a high school education level increased the probability of failing to eat or drink milk and dairy products on a daily basis (PR=1.75; p=0.033); and having a low socioeconomic status led to a higher probability of not eating fruits daily (PR=3.6; p=0.00). In addition, being a woman increased the probability of eating vegetables (PR=0.66; p=0.04) and dried fruit (PR=0.87; p=0.04) and reduced the risk of drinking soft drinks (PR=0.59; p=0.03).

Conclusion

The dietary consumption patterns identified here were better compared to what has been reported in similar studies. Likewise, interventions should focus on workers with one or several of the following characteristics: men, age ≤47 years of age, complete secondary education as the highest educational level, and low socioeconomic status.

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