Diet Behavior of Employees at a Medical Sciences University in Tehran, Iran: Iran Health Day 2015

Introduction: Diet behavior plays an important role in non-communicable disease. The theme of World Health Day 2015 was “improve food safety from farm to plate (always and everywhere)”. The present study assessed the diets of employees at a medical university in Tehran, Iran on Iran Health Day 2015. Methods: This cross-sectional study assessed the diets of 468 employees of a medical university in Tehran on World Health Day 2015. The subjects completed questionnaires on demographics and diet behavior. The data was analyzed using SPSS version 22 software. Independent samples t-test or its non-parametric equivalent were used to compare groups. Results: The mean age of the subjects was 33.45 (SD: 13.19) years. Of these 52.7% were male, 50.8% had university degrees and 42% were obese or overweight. The mean score of the diet questionnaire was 26.15 (±4.46). The highest score was 36 and the lowest was 15. Although the diet questionnaire score was significantly higher for female subjects, there was no significant relationship between educational level and diet questionnaire score. Conclusion: This study showed that few employees ate breakfast and more than 50% did not restrict their use of sugar and sweets. Female employees scored higher on the diet questionnaire. Overall, diet should be improved through attractive types of continuous education.