Dietary Habit and Nutritional Status Of Police Staff
*Moonmoon Hoque and Shakhawat Hossain Babu
Department of Nutrition and Food Engineering, Daffodil International University, Bangladesh
Submission: July 03, 2016; Published: August 05, 2016
*Corresponding author: Moonmoon Hoque, Department of Nutrition and Food Engineering, Daffodil International University, Bangladesh.
How to cite this article: Moonmoon H, Shakhawat HB. Dietary Habit and Nutritional Status Of Police Staff. Nutri Food Sci Int J. 2016; 1(2): 555559. DOI: 10.19080/NFSIJ.2016.01.555559
Abstract
Introduction: Police staff’s fitness has been an issue for police departments. It would seem self-evident that an occupation such as policing would demand that police officers stay fit as a part of the job requirements.
Objective: This study was an attempt to assess dietary habit and nutritional status of police staff.
Methods: It was a cross sectional study conducted among conveniently selected 100 police staff. Nutritional status was determined by body mass index according to WHO cut off value for Asian population. Dietary habit was estimated by using food frequency questionnaire.
Results: Most of the respondents represented from 20-39 years age group, male and Muslim. Most of the respondents (72%) had normal nutritional status whereas overweight was 24% followed by obese 3%. Regarding diet almost all of them consumed rice 2-3 times daily. Exactly half of the respondents took poultry 2-3/week whereas beef and mutton consumed 1/week. More than half of the respondents had egg and fish 1/day. About 58% study subjects took vegetables 2-3/day whereas fruits were taken 1/day.
Conclusion: Though three-fourth of the respondents were normal in terms of nutritional status but still one-fourth were overweight.
Keywords: Dietary habit; Nutritional status; Police staff
Introduction
Policing is necessary function as well as part and parcel of local and national governments throughout the globe [1]. Every nation tries to deliver their inhabitants with the most effective policing within the limitation of budgets and legal mandates. Even in developing country like Bangladesh is also doing similar service. Police officers are engaged in physical challenges on a regular basis [2]. Besides they had carry out bulky items of additional weight on a pistol belt: handgun, baton, mace, handcuffs, and Taser. Fitness/wellness of police Staff’s has been the focus on many studies; nevertheless, the authors felt it needed attention once again. Fitness is an important and vital factor for the success of policing, and this paper looks at a sample of police Staff’s from Bangladesh where crime occurs here and there due to political unrest. Evidence suggests stress, poor diets and work environments that mix sedentary hours with sudden intense physical activity make police officers significantly more vulnerable [3]. Study shows heart disease causes 45 percent of on-duty firefighter deaths and 22 percent of police officer deaths [3]. The policing stage is a very important biophysical social process in which an inadequate diet may affect the performance and intellectual capacity of individuals; this may be of special relevance to life quality in developing countries, where its habitants face adverse socioeconomic, cultural and nutritional conditions. This study is a modest attempt to explore dietary pattern and nutritional status of Rajarbagh police staff’s in Bangladesh and will help in policy making as well as implement any nutrition programmed on them.
Methods
The data obtained for this study were received through a questionnaire. The questionnaire was designed to obtain data about police staff’s, dietary pattern and nutritional Status, and lifestyle. Study was conducted at Rajarbagh police line staff’s. The study was conducted among Police of Rajarbagh Police Line Staff’s. Pre-tested semi structure questionnaire, Weight machine and Height Measuring Scale were used for study purpose. Nutritional status was determined by body mass index according to WHO cut off value for Asian population. Dietary habit was determined by food frequency questionnaire. I tried to give best effort to conduct the study work and to bring a reliable and fruitful result from which proper observation can be adopted to this report. Some limitations were faced while preparing this report. Some of those limitations were highlighted below:
The data obtained for this study were received through a questionnaire. The questionnaire was designed to obtain data about police staff’s, dietary pattern and nutritional Status, and lifestyle. Study was conducted at Rajarbagh police line staff’s. The study was conducted among Police of Rajarbagh Police Line Staff’s. Pre-tested semi structure questionnaire, Weight machine and Height Measuring Scale were used for study purpose. Nutritional status was determined by body mass index according to WHO cut off value for Asian population. Dietary habit was determined by food frequency questionnaire. I tried to give best effort to conduct the study work and to bring a reliable and fruitful result from which proper observation can be adopted to this report. Some limitations were faced while preparing this report. Some of those limitations were highlighted below:
- Due to inconvenience, some information, especially from ultimate employees could
- not be collected.
- One of the major limitations was shortage of time. Since the officials had no enough
- time to respond toward my query but they had tried their best to help me to provide
- information.
- Questionnaire was not filled up properly which occur insufficient of data.
- Sometime they were very busy about own duties.
Results
Table 1 shows 38%, 37% and 19% respondents belonged to 20-29, 30-39 and 40-49 years age group respectively. Male and female were 92% and 8%. Most of them were Muslim. About 35%, 40% and 17% respondents had 2-4, 5-7, 8-10 family members. Nearly half of the respondent’s family members earned monthly 15000-34000 BDT followed by 30% earned 35000-54000 BDT. Table 2 Nutritional status of respondents. Table 2 shows most of the respondents (72%) had normal nutritional status whereas overweight was 24% followed by obese 3% and underweight negligible. Table 3 Dietary intake pattern of respondents.
Table 3 shows almost all of them consumed rice 2-3 times daily. On the contrary nobody took rice flour 2-3 times every day. More than half of the respondents had bread 1 time per day. About 40% study subjects consumed potato 1/day. Exactly half of the respondents took poultry 2-3/week whereas beef and mutton consumed 1/week. More than half of the respondents had egg and fish 1/day. Around 40% respondents consumed milk and nut 2-3/week. About 58% study subjects took vegetables 2-3/day whereas fruits were taken 1/day.
Discussion
Nutrition is the foundation of good health; health is the foundation of all happiness, skill, performance etc. The present study found most of the police staff were normal BMI. On the contrary majority of the police personnel in Kota Kinabalu was overweight (54.9%) and having high body fat percentage (51.6%). All the respondents had sedentary lifestyles [4]. Mean BMI of police personnel (27.75 ± 4.28 kg/m2) was almost similar with the study conducted by Ramey et al., [5] with mean BMI of 28.6 ±4.9 kg/m2. Prevalence of overweight and obese among police personnel were 42.2% and 8.3% respectively. A prevalence study conducted by Nadiy et al. [6] found that, among the Malaysian Army (MA) personnel, 32.8% were overweight and 9.3% were obese [6]. Based on the results of this research there is need to enhance nutrition education among the Police department. Police department may provide common graduate nutrition courses for all Police staff’s particularly disciplines where nutrition and health is not directly or indirectly taught.
There is also need for enhancing enabling environment where police staffs can access and exploit sources beyond the conventional classroom set up such as internet to enable them benefit from wide range of authenticated nutritional information. Eating premises within Police department should be guided by nutrition principles to ensure provision of convenient, nutritious, varied, acceptable and affordable meals for police to discourage reliance on unhealthy convenient fast foods that expose police to future health risks that are preventable. Peer support provides potential for strong linkages and motivation within police networks. Science police who exhibited higher knowledge positive nutrition habits within peer networks. Further studies can be conducted on police strategic nutrients intake and factors influencing their dietary practices be investigated since they exhibited average nutritional knowledge and strong positive attitude towards nutrition but non optimal dietary practices. The Rajarbagh police line staffs are likely healthy and they are regularly parade for their exercise and obey to law of police department. Their nutritional status and performance will largely determine the quality and caliber of the next generation.
Conclusion
Though majority of the respondents were normal in terms of nutritional status but still one-fourth were overweight. So, healthy diet is required since it allows adults to work productively and feel their best. Good food choices also can help to prevent chronic diseases, such as heart disease, certain cancers, diabetes, stroke and osteoporosis that ore leading causes of detour. A proper diet can also reduce major risk factors for chronic diseases, such as obesity, high blood pressure and high blood cholesterol.
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