Nutritional and food insecurity of construction workers

Construction workers have intensive contact with their workplace and are possibly susceptible to Nutritional and Food Insecurity.

This paper assessed the Food Security status, diet and anthropometric measures of workers in the Construction Industry living in the city of João Pessoa, PB.

This cross-sectional study included 59 workers housed at construction sites. The workers were given the Brazilian Scale for Measuring Food Insecurity and Nutrition, had anthropometric measures taken and completed the Diet Quality Index, comparing their eating at the construction site and at home. Statistical analyses described the mean, standard deviation, frequency and Pearson correlations.

Food Insecurity was reported by 71.2% of the workers, and 69.5% were overweight. The mean values of the Healthy Eating Index suggested that the workers' diets were in need of modification. There were statistically significant inverse associations among the Healthy Eating Index and Body Mass Index, waist circumference, percentage of total fat and cholesterol.

Values obtained using the Scale showed Food Insecurity coupled with high excess weight and dietary inadequacies, revealing that these workers are at risk for health problems.