The attitude and behaviours of the personnel on duty at Malatya Military Hospital in 2007 on healthy dieting

This survey has been carried out to evaluate the attitude and behaviours of Malatya Military Hospital staff towards 'Healthy Dieting'.All of the personnel on duty in 2007 are included in this research (n=268). The survey has been gathered through a questionnarie covering 'nutrition consuming frequency', 'nutritional behaviours', 'general health condition' and 'socio- demographic characteristics'.The age of participants in this research varies from 25 to 52 with an average of 28.6 ± 8.0 years. Average body mass index values are; 24.2 ± 3.2. As the age grows up, body mass index rises as well, and male body mass index is significantly higher than female.Whereas doing regular exercise ratio is 35.5% between the age group of 20-24, it is 22.7% between 25-29 age group, 5.4% between 30-34 age group, 18.5% between 35-39 age group, 6.5% for those who are 40 years and over. The difference between those who do regular exercise and those who do not according to the age groups, statistically has been found significant.In accordance with the situation of 268 individuals in terms of 'meal skipping' the following results have been obtained:114 of them (42.6%) do not skip meals. 70 (26.1%) skip meals, 84(31.3%) sometimes skip meals.As a result of the survey, the ratio of the female participants who declared that 'low_fat dieting', and 'vegetable-fruit based dieting' alternatives are important, is significantly higher than male participants (p<0.005). Furthermore, as the level of education rises, the ratio of the participants who declared that 'among the alternatives of healthy dieting: ''rich vitamin-based dieting'', ''low-fat level'' and ''vegetable-fruit based dieting'' are important' gets higher.Consequently; this case study which has been implemented through a number of individuals half of whose field of education background is based on 'health' has shown that, obtaining true knowledge will not be sufficient for individuals to perform healthy attitudes. For this reason, developing new strategies in terms of gaining 'healthy attitudes' methods are needed.Key words:1-Healthy Dieting2-Nutritional Behaviours3-Eating Attitude4-Military Hospital