Objective To understand the status of nutrition and health related awareness and behavior among steel workers exposed to high temperature.
Methods A total of 560 steel workers were recruited from an iron and steel factory by convenience sampling method for a questionnaire survey. The self-administered questionnaire included general information, nutrition and health knowledge (functions and food sources of nutrients, dietary guidelines, nutrient consumption in high-temperature operation and its impact on health, special dietary awareness for high-temperature operation), nutrition and health behavior (daily nutrition and health related behavior, reasonable dietary behavior, special dietary behavior for high temperature operation). Degrees of knowledge awareness and behavior formation were represented as percentage of full mark:<40% for bad, 40%-59% for moderate, 60%-79% better than moderate, and ≥ 80% for good.
Results The total knowledge score was 40.94& #177;12.91, 41.4% of the full mark, and the good awareness degree accounted for 0.0%, better than moderate for 10.0%, moderate for 40.7%, and bad for 49.3%; specifically, the bad awareness degree of "nutrient consumption in high-temperature operation and its impact on health", "special dietary awareness for hightemperature operation", "functions and food sources of nutrients", and "dietary guidelines" accounted for 61.4%, 61.4%, 43.6%, and 5.0%, respectively. The total behavior score was 23.81& #177;7.05, 29.4% of the full mark, and the good and better than moderate awareness degree accounted for 0.0%, moderate for 13.6%, and bad for 86.4%; specifically, the bad behavior formation degree of "special dietary behavior for high-temperature operation", "daily nutrition and health related behavior", and "reasonable dietary behavior" accounted for 93.6%, 72.1%, and 22.1%, respectively. The workers' score of nutrition and health knowledge was positively correlated with their behavior score (r=0.27, P<0.01).
Conclusion The awareness degree of nutrition knowledge and the formation degree of health behavior are on the low side among the steel workers with exposure to high temperature in the iron and steel factory. It is suggested to conduct nutrition and health education focusing on specific nutrition knowledge and healthy eating behavior for high-temperature operation to the population.
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