[Abdominal obesity and dietary patterns in female shift workers]

The scope of this study was to identify dietary patterns and their association with abdominal obesity in female shift workers in southern Brazil. A non-matched case-control study was conducted, including a total of 541 women aged between 18 and 53 years old (215 cases; 326 controls). The presence of abdominal obesity was assessed by measuring waist circumference ≥ 88 cm and dietary patterns were obtained by principal component analysis of 53 food items. The name of dietary patterns was assigned based on higher load factor and nutritional characteristics of foods. The association between abdominal obesity and dietary patterns was obtained by non-conditional logistic regression. Three dietary patterns were identified: "animal fat/calories," "snacks/fast-food" and "fruits/vegetables." After adjusted analysis, the cases presented a greater chance of adherence to the "fruits/vegetables" dietary pattern (OR = 2.26; 95% CI: 1.30 to 3.93) and a lower chance of adherence to the "snacks/fast food" pattern (OR = 0.60; 95% CI: 0.36 to 1.01). In conclusion, this study identified three dietary patterns in female shift workers, and there was an improvement in nutrition in workers with abdominal obesity, representing a possible change in eating habits after their occurrence.