Associations between Dietary Factors and Self-Reported Physical Health in Chinese Scientific Workers

Qian-fen Gong, Ling Tu, Liang Zhou and Hong Chen
Additional contact information
Qian-fen Gong: Department of Nutrition, Southwest Hospital, Third Military Medical University, Chongqing 400038, China
Ling Tu: Department of Nutrition, Southwest Hospital, Third Military Medical University, Chongqing 400038, China
Liang Zhou: Department of Health Statistics, College of Preventive Medicine, Third Military Medical University, Chongqing 400038, China
Hong Chen: Department of Nutrition, Southwest Hospital, Third Military Medical University, Chongqing 400038, China

IJERPH, 2015, vol. 12, issue 12, 1-10

Abstract: Background : Scientific workers play an important role in the development of science and technology. However, evidence is lacking with regard to the associations between their dietary factors and their health-related quality of life (HRQOL). Methods : A cross-sectional survey was conducted among 775 scientific workers from multiple universities and institutes in the Southwest region of China. A self-administered food-frequency questionnaire was used to collect the food consumption information, and the 36-item Short-Form Health Survey was used to assess physical HRQOL. Hierarchical multiple regression analysis was used to identify the factors associated with scientific workers’ HRQOL. Results : Physical HRQOL was negatively associated with age and intake of fresh pork (fat) and animal viscera, whereas consumption of vegetables, fruits, refined cereals and dairy products were positively correlated with physical HRQOL. Participants with daily intake of vegetable oils or mixed oils showed higher physical HRQOL scores than those with intake of animal oils. Conclusions : Dietary habits are closely associated with the physical HRQOL of scientific workers. The dietary patterns that had more vegetables and fruits, less fresh pork (fat) and animal viscera, and used vegetable oils during cooking corresponded to higher physical HRQOL scores. These findings are important for planning dietary strategies to improve physical health in scientific workers.

Keywords: dietary factors; SF-36; health-related quality of life; scientific workers (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2015
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/12/12/15041/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/12/12/15041/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:12:y:2015:i:12:p:15041-16069:d:60858

Access Statistics for this article

IJERPH is currently edited by Ms. Jenna Liu

More articles in IJERPH from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().