Association between Diet, Physical Activity and Nutritional Status of Male Border Guard Officers

Abstract

The main factors that determine the effectiveness and reliability of duties and tasks performed by border guard officers, are very good health and maintaining a high level of psychophysical fitness that depend mainly on adequate diet and physical activity and thus, nutritional status. The aim of the study was to verify the correlations between dietary habits, physical activity level and selected nutritional status indicators. One hundred and sixty-nine male border guard officers participated in the study. A 61-item food frequency questionnaire (FFQ) was used to assess dietary habits and a long-form International Physical Activity Questionnaire (IPAQ) was used to assess physical activity. Fat mass was determined by bioelectrical impedance analysis (BIA) and bone calcification was assessed by the dual energy X-ray absorptiometry (DXA). Many correlations between dietary habits, as well as the physical activity of officers and body mass index (BMI), fat mass index (FMI) and visceral fat level (VFL) were found, while bone mineral density (BMD T-score) negatively correlated only with two food groups and 6 out of 61 products but did not correlate with physical activity. The results also confirmed many poor dietary habits and abnormalities in nutritional status. Thus, there is a need for nutritional education and further monitoring of health-related behaviors, as well as monitoring the nutritional status of border guard officers.