INTRODUCTION:

The workplace is an important area of action for the promotion of healthy lifestyles.

OBJECTIVES:

To evaluate sources of information and food/nutrition topics which arouse greatest interest, health status and nutritional knowledge among employees of a city hall.

METHODOLOGY:

One hundred eighteen employees of a city hall participated in the study. Sociodemographic data, self-perception of health status, weight and height, sources of information and preferential food/nutrition issues, and knowledge on this subject (dietary recommendations; food source of nutrients; diet-disease relationship) were obtained through the Nutritional Knowledge Questionnaire (NKQ).

RESULTS:

Females had higher level of knowledge, either in total (p = 0.001) and in the sections on food source of nutrients (p = 0.001) and on diet-disease relationship (p = 0.030). Also, younger participants (R = -0.205; p = 0.030), those with lower body mass index (R = -0.188; p = 0.049), those with higher academic qualifications (R = 0.506; p < 0.001) and those who perceived themselves as healthy (R = 0.123) had higher level of knowledge. The section on diet-disease relationship registered the lowest level of knowledge. Regarding sources of information, 67.8% reported the habit of doing it, mainly using the Internet (58.5%) and through a doctor (30.5%). Employees who research information had higher level of knowledge (median = 67.2% vs. 57.8%; p = 0.004). We also studied the differences on knowledge between participants who use or not each information source.

CONCLUSIONS:

These results show that, in this group, the level of knowledge about food/nutrition is not high, justifying the need to implement interventions in terms of promoting food/nutritional literacy. Given its characteristics, food education should be a priority, as well as interventions focusing food environment on the workplace.

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