RESUMO
Background and Purpose: There is evidence on the antiobesity effects of dietary calcium. Most employees have low physical activity and due to many rounds of work, their nutritional intake is affected, and around one-fifth of them suffer from overweight. The present study was conducted to investigate the correlation of dietary calcium and anthropometric indices in the staff of Vasei Hospital in Sabzevar, Iran
Methods and Materials: The cross sectional descriptive study was conducted on 300 employees at Vasei Hospital in Sabzevar, Iran. Their weight, height, hip and arm circumference were measured by standardized procedures to take a record in data collection forms. A 24-hour recall form was given for two successive days to each participant, and a food frequency form was completed for the annual nutritional pattern of each participant. The food intake by grams was given into the Food Processor 3 software. Then, each participant's data on nutrients and their anthropometric readings were fed into SPSS 14 for analyzing by independent t-test, Person correlation coefficient, One-way and Two-way ANOVA
Results: In this study, 77.9% of the participants had normal weight and 22.1% were overweight. Mean calcium intake was 1843.57 +/- 1383 and 1023.99 +/- +/-703.71 mg/day in men and women, respectively. No correlation was observed between calcium, BMI [p=o.52] and body weight [p=0.22]. However, there was significant negative correlation between dietary calcium and hip [p=0.01] and arm circumference [p=0.04] in men
Conclusion: The results showed that there is no significant correlation between dietary calcium, BMI and body weight