The Health and Nutritional Status of Urban Area Workers in Korea

도시 직장인의 건강 및 영양 상태 조사 (I)

This study was conducted to evaluate the workers' health conditions, nutritional status, food habits, and their needs for the nutrition programs at the worksite. Three hundred and fifty one(men 260, women 91) employees from 11 companies in urban area were recruited for the study. The results of this study were as follows : The average consumption of nutrients in the subjects' diets were found to be deficient such as total energy, calcium, iron, vitamin A and $B_2$. More than 42% of the subjects have at least one of the chronic diseases like obesity, diabetes mellitus, anemia, hypercholesterolemia, liver disease, and hypertension. Most subjects did not recognize their own blood cholesterol levels, blood pressure, or blood sugar level. Nutrition knowledge scores of the subjects were very low, which was only 52.4%. It should be noted that weight problems and other health problems of the employees at the worksite were frequently found among the employees who had relatively low nutrition knowledge scores. The nutrition programs for prevention of the obeses, hypercholesterolemia, diabetes mellitus, stress, and smoking were urgently needed by the subjects. Many subjects also wanted the nutrition education programs for their family.