Gul Kiziltan

Is neck circumference measurement an indicator for abdominal obesity? A pilot study on Turkish Adults

BACKGROUND Neck circumference (NC) measurement is one of the simple screening measurements which can be used as an index of upper body fat distribution to identify obesity. OBJECTIVES The aim of this study was to determine the relationship between neck circumferences and obesity. METHODS A total 411 volunteer adults participated in this study (174 men, 237 women). A questionnaire which consisted of anthropometric measurements and demographic features was used. Patients with NC ≥37 cm for men and ≥34 cm for women require evaluation of overweight status. RESULTS The percentages of the men and women with BMI ≥ 25 kg/m(2) were 55.2% and 27.0% respectively and with high neck circumferences were 85.1% and 38.8%, respectively. The percentages of the men and women with high waist circumference were 31.6% and 79.3%, respectively. In both gender there were positive significant correlations between neck circumference, body weight (men, r=0.576; women, r=0.702; p=0.000), waist circumferences (men, r=0.593; women r=0.667; p=0.000), hip circumferences (men, r=0.568; women, r=0.617; p=0.000) and BMI (men, r=0.587; women, r=0.688; p=0.000). CONCLUSIONS This study indicates that NC was associated with body weight, BMI, waist and hip circumferences and waist/hip ratio for men and women. A significant association was found between NC and conventional overweight and obesity indexes. NC was associated with waist/hip ratio for men and women.

Kitchen Safety in Hospitals Practices and Knowledge of Food Handlers in Istanbul, Turkey

This study was designed to identify the practices and knowledge of food handlers about workplace safety in hospital kitchens (four on-premises and eight off-premises) in Istanbul. A kitchen safety knowledge questionnaire was administered and a kitchen safety checklist was completed by dietitians. The mean total scores of the on-premise and off-premise hospital kitchens were 32.7 ± 8.73 and 37.0 ± 9.87, respectively. The mean scores for the items about machinery tools, electricity, gas, and fire were lower in off-premise than on-premise hospital kitchen workers. The kitchen safety knowledge questionnaire had five subsections; 43.7% of the food handlers achieved a perfect score. Significant differences were found in the knowledge of food handlers working in both settings about preventing slips and falls (p < .05). Significant relationships were found between marital status, education level, and kitchen safety knowledge of the food handlers (p < .05).

Nutritional status of university students with binge eating disorder Tıkınırcasınayeme bozukluğu olan üniversite öğrencilerinin beslenme durum ları

Department of Nutrition and Dietetics, Baskent University, Health Sciences Faculty, Ankara Aim: To determine the binge-eating disorder (BED) and relationships with body mass index (BMI) and nutritional status in 281 university students. Materials and Methods: BED was assessed by Bulimic Investigatory Test, Edinburgh (BITE) proposed by Henderson and Freeman. Results: Sixty-five students (14.2 % male, 8.9 % female; totally 23.1 %) met the criteria for BED (BED+) with a mean age of 20.9± 1.7 years and BMI of 23.7±3.9 kg/m. Nearly fifteen percent (15.4 %) of the BED+ group was classified as at risk of overweight (85 to <95 percentiles) and 1.5 % of them were classified as overweight (>95 percentile). Significant differences were observed in daily total energy intake between BED+ (2381±1096kcal/day) and BED(1700±747 kcal/day) (p<0.05). There were significantly differences in consuming of breads/cereals, dairy products (p<0.01), vegetables, meat servings (p<0.05), between groups. Conclusion: These findings suggest that BED should be a significant health problem associated with medical problems among university students