Cluster approach to assessing nutritional-related health risks of the working-age population

Abstract

Compliance with the principles of rational nutrition by the able-bodied population ensures the processes of biotransformation of harmful factors of the working environment, reduces the level of alimentary-dependent morbidity, occupational morbidity, industrial injuries, and contributes to an increase in labor productivity. The aim is to assess the nutritional-related health risks of the working-age population based on the cluster analysis of actual nutrition in order to develop preventive programs. The study involved 1624 people aged 18 to 65, 745 men and 879 women (workers in industrial enterprises, health care institutions, education, agriculture, and the private sector of the economy). The actual nutrition of the able-bodied population was carried out according to the questionnaire-survey method using the «Nutriprof» software complex, anthropometric indicators, hemodynamic parameters, indicators of carbohydrate, lipid metabolism, and vitamin provision were studied. Assessment of the dependence of alimentary-related risk factors with the nature of eating behavior was carried out using logistic regression analysis. Logistic regression analysis of food clusters made it possible to identify groups of the working-age population with the maximum risk of load due to the nutritional factor. The greatest number of risks was identified in cluster 2 with a high adherence to a «high-calorie» diet (excessive consumption of bakery products, fat and oil, sausages, confectionery and sugary carbonated drinks). Cluster analysis of the actual nutrition of the working-age population can be used to study the influence of risk factors associated with nutrition on health, as well as to develop and implement programs in the field of healthy nutrition in the context of the prevention of food-dependent diseases.