Dietary Habits and Perceived Barriers of Healthy Eating among Healthcare Workers in a Tertiary Hospital in Egypt: A Cross Sectional Study

Abstract

Abstract Background Healthcare professionals often possess a strong awareness of the significance of good dietary habits due to their knowledge of nutrition and health. However, their demanding schedules, high-stress environments, and irregular working hours can pose significant barriers to maintaining healthy eating habits. Patients and Methods The current cross-sectional study was conducted to measure the prevalence among a sample of 373 Health Care Workers (HCWs)at Children’s Cancer Hospital Egypt. Data was collected using structured an interview questionnaire that includes socio-demographic characteristics, Job characteristics, history of chronic diseases, assessment of the dietary habits of the participants using the validated Rapid Eating Assessment for Participants - Shortened Version (REAPS), and barriers of healthy eating. Results Approximately half of the participants failed to adhere to the dietary recommendations for whole grains, vegetables, fruits, and dairy products. More than half of them usually and sometimes consume fried foods and added sugars during the week. The total mean score of dietary habits of the studied group was 26.55 with sd. 3.71 and range (15 - 37), suggestive of a lower diet quality than the average general population in the US. The average REAP-S score for a U.S. omnivorous diet is 32 with higher scores indicating healthier diet. The existing study results demonstrated that there is high significant correlation between studied group total score of dietary habits and their age. There is also significant difference between studied group total score of dietary habits and their working hours as the total score decreases within group who work more than 8 hours. On the other hand, there is no statistically significant difference between studied group total score of dietary habits and the rest of other demographic data. The current study results showed that according to HCWs; two fifth of the participants reported busy lifestyle (48.9%) and irregular work hours (39.8%), around one quarter of them reported willpower (27.4%) and healthy options are not as readily available as unhealthy (21.5%) and only (17.9%) of them reported price of healthy foods as barriers of healthy eating. Conclusion according to the results of the present study, there is a need for initiatives to promote healthier eating habits among healthcare personnel. The current work processes and policies should be reviewed in order to organize workload in ways that allow for enough break times for HCWs, introduce mandatory regular checkups for HCWs in each practice setting to monitor their health and adopt hospital-wide electronic applications that help HCWs to plan for and monitor their diet plans.