Investigation of police officers' physical activity levels and attitudes towards healthy nutrition

The aim of this study was to determine the physical activity levels and attitudes towards healthy nutrition of police officers. This study was carried out on 260 police officers working at the Malatya Provincial Police Department. Data were collected by the interviewer with the questionnaire method. The "International Physical Activity Questionnaire Short Form" (IPAQ) was used to determine the level of physical activity. The "Attitude Scale for Healthy Nutrition" (ASHN) was used to determine healthy nutrition attitudes. Body mass index (BMI) was calculated with formula using height and weight. Number, percentage distribution, standard deviation, mean, t test, analysis of variance (ANOVA), Mann-Whitney U test, Kruskal-Wallis test and correlation analysis were used in the interpretation of the data. The results were evaluated at a 95% confidence interval and the level of significance was accepted as <0.05. The mean age of the police officers was 38.19±6.73 years. 84.6% (n=220) of the police officers were male, 79.2% (n=206) were married, and 97.3% (n=253) were university graduates. The mean service period was 13.98±6.64 years. The mean BMI was 26.08±3.27 kg/m2. According to BMI, 51.5% (n=134) of the police officers had a normal body weight. According to IPAQ classification, 33% (n=86) of police officers had low physical activity level, 48.5% (n=126) had medium level and 18.5% (n=48) had high level. The weekly energy consumption averages due to physical activity were 1713.16±1867.38 MET (basal metabolic rate)-min. Total physical activity levels were found to be similar according to body weight (p>0.05). However, the difference between walking and sitting times according to body weight was statistically significant (p<0.05). It was determined that 12.7% of the police officers had a moderate, 73.8% a high, and 13.5% an ideally high attitude towards healthy nutrition. The mean ASHN score of police officers was 73.59±9.51 and their attitude towards healthy nutrition was high. When the correlation coefficients between the police officers' UFAA scores and ASHN scores and BMI were examined, the relationship between UFAA scores and BMI values was significant and in the opposite direction (r= -0.155; p=0.012). A significant and linear relationship was found between UFAA scores and ASHN scores (r=0.134; p=0.031). According to the results of this study, police officers had moderate physical activity levels and high attitudes towards healthy nutrition.