Evaluation of the effect of nutritional knowledge and nutritional status on health perception of desk workers

The basic components of a healthy life are known as proper nutrition and physical activity. It negatively affects the physical, physiological, social and psychological health of desk workers who spend most of their daily work routine sitting. This study aimed to investigate the effects of nutritional knowledge and nutritional status on the health perception of individuals working at a desk. This study was conducted with 94 volunteers working at a desk in Afyonkarahisar between 01.01.2023 and 01.02.2024. The participants' sociodemographic characteristics, food consumption records, nutritional knowledge level and health perception level were questioned with the survey form. Nutritional status of individuals was determined by a 24-hour food consumption record. Nutrition Knowledge Level Scale for Adults (YETBİD) to question individuals' nutritional knowledge; Health Perception Scale (HAS) was used to determine health perception status. 80.90% of the participants are men and 19.10% are women. The average age is 36.80±9.02 years. The education level of 59.60% of the participants is high school or undergraduate. The average BMI is 26.66±3.81 kg/m². The most commonly skipped main meal is breakfast, 25.50% of the time. The most common reason for 36.20% of the participants to skip meals is because they forgot or did not have the opportunity. While 57.4% of the participants had a medium basic nutrition knowledge level in the basic nutrition section of the YETBİD scale; In the food preference section, 100% of all participants have poor knowledge. 14.54±3.81% of the energy consumed by the participants comes from protein, 41.38±11.61% from fat and 40.21±10.75% from carbohydrates. Participants had insufficient daily intake of vitamin A, thiamine, vitamin B6, folate and vitamin B12, calcium, magnesium, zinc and selenium. The nutrition knowledge level of women participating in the study is higher than men (p=.048<0.05). As the education level increases, the perception of health also increases (p=.019<0.05). There is a positive and strong relationship between SAS and YETBİD scale (r=.239; p=.020). Desk workers need to be made aware of nutrition to increase their health perception. To ensure this, employees should be informed by organizing training programs to explain healthy nutrition. It is recommended to conduct studies with larger sample groups on this subject. Keywords: healthperception, nutrition, deskworker