Assessment of the nutritional knowledge, eating habits and nutritional statuses of healthcare workers in Jos, North-central Nigeria

Abstract

The Heath workforce is a critical source of nutritional knowledge for the population in developing countries. Their ability to fulfil this role is dependent on their nutritional knowledge and practises. This study aimed to ascertain the nutritional knowledge, practises and statuses of healthcare workers in Jos metropolis. A descriptive cross-sectional study of 239 healthcare workers, sampled using multi-stage sampling technique from four health facilities in Jos Metropolis. Response rate was 90.8%. Data was collected using self-administered questionnaires and analysed using Epi info version 3.5.4. A 95% confidence interval with a p-value < 0.05 was considered statistically significant. The largest proportion of respondents was aged 20 to 29 years, female (54%) and married (51%). Most of them had fair nutritional knowledge (56.8%), and normal Body Mass Index (BMI) (52.9%). There was a statistically significant relationship between the type of foods eaten at work and their sex (0.0005) as well as the presence of a canteen in the hospital (0.043). The likelihood of having a normal BMI were higher if the health worker had worked for less than 5 years or was a community health worker. The levels of nutritional knowledge and practice were largely fair among the studied health workers while some of them were obese (56.8 and 62.1% respectively). There is need for health workers to attend nutritionally related refresher courses periodically