The association of occupational stress with nutritional attitudes and behaviors in healthcare professionals

The purpose of the present study was to investigate the nutritional attitudes, nutritional behaviors, and determinants of work stress of healthcare staff, and to examine the association between work stress and nutritional attitudes and behaviors. This cross-sectional study was conducted with 289 healthcare professionals who were working in Silivri State Hospital in Istanbul between June and October 2021. The data were collected by using the Personal Information Form, Eating Attitude Test- Short Form (EAT-26), Three-Factor Eating Questionnaire (TFEQ-21), and Swedish Workload-Control-Support Questionnaire (DCQ-TR Job Stress Scale). A total of 70.6% of the healthcare professionals were women, and 54.0% were undergraduates, with a ort age of 34.50±8.30. Also, 56.4% of the employees were nurses, midwives, and healthcare officers, 11.1% were physicians, 10.7% were medical technicians, and 21.8% were from other occupational groups. According to the Multivariate Linear Regression Analysis, the gender, educational status, presence of chronic disease, physical activity, alcohol consumption, BMI, eating before bedtime, occupation, and working conditions were the determinants of the nutritional attitudes of the participants (p<0.05). Gender, age, smoking status, eating before bedtime, BMI scores, and physical activity were the determinants of the eating behaviors of the participants (p<0.05). The presence of chronic disease, smoking status, occupation, working style, unit of work, and working conditions were the determinants of job stress (p<0.05). It was determined that as the workload increased, the attitude of restriction among nutrition attitudes increased, as the work stress increased, the attitude of preoccupation with eating increased, and a general deterioration was detected in the nutritional attitudes as the workload and work stress increased and social support decreased (p<0.05). It was also found that as job control and social support decreased, uncontrolled eating behavior increased, as social support decreased, emotional eating behavior increased, as job control and skill use increased, and as social support and work stress decreased, cognitive restriction behavior increased (p<0.05). Job stress affects the nutritional attitudes and/or behaviors of healthcare staff. Initiatives intending to reduce the psychosocial risks of healthcare staff must be planned and implemented.