A study on health‐related lifestyle, nutrition intake and diet quality of Korean male workers according to cigarettes smoking (pack/year)

Abstract

This study was performed to compare the lifestyles, dietary behaviors, nutrient intakes, and diet quality of male adult workers aged 20–50 years in Korea according to smoking history. Subjects were recruited and divided into three groups according to the smoking history (pack‐year), which included non‐smoker (n=40), light‐smoker (n=26; pack‐year ≤10), and heavy‐smoker (n=24; pack‐year > 10). The heavy‐smokers more often ate irregular meals compared with the other two groups (p< 0.001). Intakes of carbohydrate (p< 0.05), Vitamin C (p< 0.05), Plant calcium (p<0.05), Iron (p< 0.01), animal iron (p<0.05), Zinc (p<0.05) of light‐smokers and heavy‐smokers were lower than non‐smoker. INQ (Index of Nutritional Quality) of these nutrients in the two smoker groups were lower than for non‐smokers. Male smokers have low intake status of Vitamin C, Calcium, Iron, Zinc, and partly low diet quality. This research suggested that increased nutrition education and revised guidelines for smokers are needed.