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

• Published in: International journal of environmental research and public health 2023-01, Vol.20 (3), p.2166
• Main Authors: de Lira, Carlos Rodrigo Nascimento, Akutsu, Rita de Cássia Coelho de Almeida, Coelho, Lorene Gonçalves, Zandonadi, Renata Puppin, Costa, Priscila Ribas de Farias
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Abdomen; Alcoholic beverages; Alcoholism; Body Composition; Body fat; Body mass; Body mass index; Body size; Coronaviruses; COVID-19; COVID-19 - epidemiology; Data collection; Diet; Eating behavior; Factor analysis; Fat-free body mass; Food; Food consumption; Hospitals; Humans; Longitudinal Studies; Medical personnel; Medical research; Metabolism; Multivariate statistical analysis; Nutrition research; Obesity; Occupational health; Occupational Stress; Overweight; Pandemics; Psychological stress; Questionnaires; Stress; Womens health; Workers; Working hours
• ISSN: 1660-4601; 1661-7827; 1660-4601
• DOI: 10.3390/ijerph20032166

This longitudinal study aimed to evaluate the association between dietary patterns and the body composition of hospital workers subjected to occupational stressors before and during the COVID-19 pandemic. Data on sociodemographic, occupational, lifestyle, anthropometric, food consumption and occupational stress were collected before and during the COVID-19 pandemic. A total of 218 workers from a private hospital in Santo Antônio de Jesus, Bahia, Brazil were included in the study. After evaluating the normality of the data, parametric or non-parametric tests were used to characterize the sample. Dietary pattern was defined with Exploratory Factor Analysis and Structural Equation Modeling was used to test the desired association. During the pandemic, work per shift increased by 8.2% ( = 0.004) and working hours > 40 h/week increased by 9.2% ( = 0.006). Despite the higher prevalence of low occupational stress (85.8% vs. 72.1%), high stress increased by 13.7% from 2019 to 2020 ( < 0.001) and 30.3% reported a positive mediating effect on the variables of body composition, body mass index (b = 0.478; < 0.001), waist circumference (b = 0.395; = 0.001), fat-free mass (b = 0.440; = 0.001) and fat mass (b = -0.104; = 0.292). Therefore, a dietary pattern containing high-calorie foods was associated with changes in the body composition of hospital workers, including occupational stressors as mediators of this relationship.