Overweight and workplace in munucipal public sector

Abstract

Objective
To determine whether sociodemographic characteristics, food habits, health status, and working conditions are related to excess weight in municipal civil servants.

Methods
This online epidemiological survey collected data about the sociodemographic characteristics, health, food habits, nutrition, and workplace of civil servants from the municipality of Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais, from September to December 2009. Poisson regression adjusted for gender, age, and job duration was performed using a significance level of 5% (p<0.05).

Results
A total of 44.4% of the participants (n=4,893) had excess weight, which prevailed in women (p<0.001) and individuals with higher median age (p<0.001), who had children (p<0.001), who were married or had a partner (p=0.002), and who had lower education level (p<0.001) and occupational status, determined by the International Socioeconomic Index (p<0.001). Poisson regression found associations between overweight and self-reported diabetes mellitus (PR=1.15; 95%CI=1.03-1.27), hypercholesterolemia (PR=1.24; 95%CI=1.15-1.32), hypertension (PR=1.47; 95%CI=1.37-1.58), health self-assessment (PR=1.20; 95%CI=1.12-1.29), habitual
cooking (PR=1.11; 95%CI=1.04-1.20), eating meat with visible fat (PR=1.16; 95%CI=1.08-1.24), and hardly taking work breaks (PR=1.10; CI95%: 1.03-1.18).

Conclusion
The relationship between workplace and excess weight, evidenced by its association with infrequent work breaks, shows the need of specific preventive measures that take into account workplace characteristics.