Overweight and its associated factors among employees of a university from the state of Santa Catarina

INTRODUCTION: The increasing incidence of overweight worldwide is influenced by several factors of daily life and also affects the working population. OBJECTIVE: To assess overweight and its association with sociodemographic factors, food consumption, and eating habits in employees of a university. METHOD: This is a cross-sectional study conducted with employees of a university in southern Santa Catarina. A questionnaire containing demographic, socioeconomic, and nutritional information was used. The exposure variables studied were: sex, age, marital status, schooling, frequency of weekly food consumption, and eating behaviors. Overweight was assessed using body mass index. Crude and adjusted analyses of the association between overweight and independent variables were performed using Poisson’s regression. RESULTS: The prevalence of overweight among the 214 employees was 54.9%. After the adjusted analysis, women had a 34% lower risk of overweight when compared to men (prevalence ratio: 0.66; 95% confidence interval 0.53-0.82). In addition, overweight was directly associated with age (p <0.001), while schooling remained inversely associated with overweight. CONCLUSIONS: The high prevalence of overweight among workers demonstrates the need to develop interventions and /or programs that promote health in the work environment, especially for groups at higher risk, such as older men and those with lower levels of schooling.