Maria Lennernäs

Shift Related Dietary Intake in Day and Shift Workers

To study the impact of work hours on eating habits the dietary intake of 96 male industrial workers on day work and two- and three-shift work was investigated using repeated 24 h recall. The intake of energy, 14 nutrients, and coffee and tea was computed, using a nutrient data base, for 8 h work and shifts (day, morning, afternoon, night) and for the 24-h periods including these work shifts. No changes in intake of energy, nutrients and coffee/tea were observed between 8 h morning and afternoon shifts, but there was a reduction in intake during 8 h night shifts. Night shift work caused a redistribution of food and coffee intake, but not an overall 24 h reduction. On the whole, the energy-intake and the quality of food intake (percentages of energy from macronutrients and density of micronutrients) were not affected by shift work, although the intake of carbohydrates was lower in day- and three-shift workers during days off. The intake of alcohol was higher during days off in all groups. In summary, two- and three-shift work in this study affected the circadian distribution of food intakes and coffee consumption, but not the overall 24-h consumption.

Children's nutrient intake at preschool and at home

A preschool‐based dietary survey, using 7‐d records, was carried out in a suburb of Stockholm. The aim was to assess the intake of food and the quality of the diet of preschool children aged 3–5y at preschool and at home, and to compare the dietary intake with the Swedish dietary recommendations for preschool children. The respective mean intakes of protein, fat, carbohydrates and sucrose, expressed as a percentage of total energy intake were 14, 38, 50 and 9 at preschool, and at home 14, 36, 52 and 12 on weekdays, 14, 34, 55 and 16 on weekend days. The mean intakes of seven vitamins and minerals were low only for selenium as compared with the recommended level. No differences were found in nutrient density between diet at preschool and diet at home, with the exception of dietary fibre (higher at preschool). On weekdays there was a significantly higher nutrient density for calcium, zinc, selenium, vitamin A, riboflavin, vitamin C and dietary fibre compared with weekend days.

Food selection in anorectics and bulimics: food items, nutrient content and nutrient density.

OBJECTIVE The food selection and nutrient intake were investigated in women with anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa and controls. METHODS Dietary data was obtained by 24-hour recall, and 7-day recording among eating disordered patients, and by 3-day registration among controls. RESULTS The intake of energy and nutrients differed from controls, as expected, while there were no differences between anorectics and bulimics in this respect, except for iron. There were only minor differences among the three groups studied with respect to nutrient density. Energy percentages of protein, fat, and carbohydrates, were similar in all groups, but a subdivision of the macronutrients into respective sources showed that bulimics had a lower relative and absolute intake of carbohydrates from bread and cereals than anorectics and controls. CONCLUSION Eating disorder patients, despite their marginal food intake, still met the minimum requirement for most nutrients according to the Nordic Nutrient recommendations.

Nutrient intake in day workers and shift workers

Abstract The 24-h dietary intake, nutritional status parameters and psychosomatic factors of two-shift, three-shift and day workers were compared. Estimations of the dietary intake (across a work cycle) were made by use of a nutrient database. No significant differences were found between the groups for a large number of nutritional variables: intake of energy; intake and percentage of energy from protein, fat, total carbohydrates and sucrose; intake of coffee; and intake and density of vitamins and minerals. Only minor differences were found between the groups with regard to the quantitative intake of alcohol and calcium, and with regard to the quality of the diet (percentage of energy from alcohol, density of calcium). The groups differed significantly with respect to attitude towards work hours (three-shift workers being most negative in their attitude) and sleep disturbances (shift workers being most negative). The three-shift workers were more evening-oriented and they had higher concentrations of gl...

Nutrition and 3‐shift work. The 24‐hour intake of energy and nutrients

Food consumption was studied (repeated 24‐hour recalls) during five days (four different work shifts and days off) in 16 healthy Swedish male papermill workers (rotating 3‐shift). A comparison (energy, fourteen nutrients) between 24‐hr periods showed a higher intake of energy and five nutrients during the 12 h work shift day compared to days off. The mean 24‐hr energy‐intake varied between 16,7 MJ (12 h work shift) and 13,3 MJ (days off). When only work hours were considered, the intake of energy and six nutrients were significantly higher during the morning‐shift compared to the night‐shift. There were no differences in the quality of the diet or the coffee consumption between 24‐hr days or between 8‐hr shifts. It was concluded that shift work affects 24 h nutrient intake to a very limited extent, although the distribution within 24 hours may vary.

The impact of worksite interventions promoting healthier food and/or physical activity habits among employees working ‘around the clock’ hours: a systematic review

We conducted a systematic review of randomised studies on the impact of worksite interventions to promote healthier food and/or physical activity among people who work irregular hours ‘around the clock’, that is, outside of ordinary daytime working hours. The population–intervention–comparator–outcomes–study (PICOS) design format was used. Data sources were PubMed and CINAHL. An updated search was conducted on October 2017 using Google Scholar and the related articles function in PubMed on initially included studies to identify additional studies. Risk of bias was used to assess study quality. A total of seven studies (reports published in 14 papers) were included in the systematic review: Two interventions with a broader lifestyle approach, three focusing on physical exercise and two on providing healthier food or meal options. The studies had sample sizes from 30 to 1,000 and targeted a mixture of occupations, including both male- and female-dominated occupational groups. The interventions lasted from 2 to 12 months. Only one had an extended follow-up. In general, the studies showed small-to-moderate effect sizes on several measures, including dietary and/or physical activity measures, suggesting acceptable effectiveness for interventions involving community-level behaviour change. Our findings highlight a need to further develop and implement well-designed health promotion interventions with comparable outcome measures and effect size reports. A mixture of health promotion strategies is recommended for future practice in this target population, including individually tailored programmes, improving the food and physical activity environment and using broader lifestyle approaches including the use of participatory and empowerment strategies. While more research is needed in this field, the existing knowledge base on effective approaches awaits translation into practice.

Preschool children’s meal patterns analysed using the Food-Based Classification of Eating Episodes model

Background: Because of changing food habits that may influence nutritional status it is important, especially in children, reproducibly to describe and analyse the timing and frequency of eating and the composition of different types of eating episodes. Objective: To describe eating patterns of 3-5-year-old Swedish preschool children by analysing 7 day food records using the Food-Based Classification of Eating Episodes (FBCE) model. Design: Food intakes were categorized into four types of ‘‘meals’’ and four types of ‘‘snacks’’, according to their food profile. Complete 7 day weighed and estimated food records for 109 children were processed and analysed. Results: On weekdays the children ate significantly more frequently than on weekend days, having 5.6 and 5.2 eating episodes per day, respectively. More eating episodes were classified as ‘‘meals’’ on weekdays than on weekend days: 72% and 60%, respectively. On average for the whole week, 4 3% of the daily energy intake was derived from ‘‘complete meals’’ (CM) and 34% from ‘‘incomplete meals’’ (IM). CM contributed significantly more energy and more nutrients, except for calcium, than did IM. In low-quality snacks (LS), sucrose contributed with about one-third of the energy content and the nutrient density was low. Conclusions: The qualitative FBCE model verified nutritional characteristics of the children’s diet previously found in the same cohort by the traditional dietary assessment methods. Processing of the dietary data by the model to show the prevalence and temporal distribution of eating episodes appears to be an applicable tool for nutritional screening of children’s eating patterns. Keywords: eating episodes; frequency; meals and snacks; preschool children; timing