Dietary habits among health professionals working in a district hospital in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa

African Journal of Primary Health Care & Family Medicine

 
 
Field Value
 
Title Dietary habits among health professionals working in a district hospital in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa
 
Creator Kunene, Siyabonga H. Taukobong, Nomathemba P.
 
Subject Physiotherapy Dietary habits; health professionals; study design
Description Introduction: The burden of diseases associated with unhealthy lifestyle behaviours continues to increase in the low- and middle-income countries including South Africa. Among the affected population are the health professionals who are assumed to be knowledgeable about healthy eating.Aim: This study aimed to determine the dietary habits of health professionals in a public district hospital in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa.Methods: A cross-sectional survey was conducted in 2012 among 109 randomly selected health professionals. Each received a questionnaire consisting of mostly closed and few open-ended questions. Its main focus was the dietary and eating habits of the professionals. An ethical clearance was granted by the Medunsa Research and Ethics committee at the University of Limpopo. Permission to conduct the study was sought and obtained from participants as well. Descriptive statistics and frequencies were used to analyse data.Results: A 100% (109) response rate was achieved. The majority skipped meals especially breakfast with a significant positive correlation between breakfast intake per week and age (r = 0.98, p = 0.048). The majority consumed a lot of unhealthy foods and carbonated beverages with sugar. Consumption of fruits, vegetables, high fibre and whole grain foods was less common.Conclusion: The study showed poor eating habits among participants. Urgent health interventions are therefore indicated to highlight the importance of healthy eating habits among the entire population.
 
Publisher AOSIS
 
Contributor
Date 2017-06-28
 
Type info:eu-repo/semantics/article info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion — survey
Format text/html application/epub+zip text/xml application/pdf
Identifier 10.4102/phcfm.v9i1.1364
 
Source African Journal of Primary Health Care & Family Medicine; Vol 9, No 1 (2017); 5 pages 2071-2936 2071-2928
 
Language eng
 
Relation
The following web links (URLs) may trigger a file download or direct you to an alternative webpage to gain access to a publication file format of the published article:

https://phcfm.org/index.php/phcfm/article/view/1364/2103 https://phcfm.org/index.php/phcfm/article/view/1364/2102 https://phcfm.org/index.php/phcfm/article/view/1364/2104 https://phcfm.org/index.php/phcfm/article/view/1364/2090
 
Coverage Africa; South Africa; KwaZulu-Natal; Uthukela District; Escourt 2012 Hospital health workers
Rights Copyright (c) 2017 Siyabonga H. Kunene, Nomathemba P. Taukobong https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
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