Estilo de vida e consumo de alimentos funcionais em docentes de uma instituição federal de ensino superior do sul do Brasil

Abstract

Purpose: To assess lifestyle and functional foods’ consumption in teachers of a Federal Institution of Higher Education in the south of Brazil. Methods: The Dean of the University Human Resources informed the e-mails of the 1823 teachers of the Institution, and an email was sent to all of them inviting to participate, along with the explanations about the research. Participation was made filling online the "Lifestyle Fantastic Questionnaire - QEVF", which was translated and validated for Brazil and a food frequency questionnaire (FFQ), prepared by the authors, containing 16 functional food groups. Results: From the total number of 1823 teachers of the institution, 280 participated in the study, 134 were men and 146 were women, with a mean age of 46.26 (± 9.23) years. The average life style was 73.79 (± 11.57) and the consumption of functional foods was 9.41 (± 3.01). The lifestyle was significantly correlated with the consumption of functional foods, both in the sample as a whole and when divided by sex. In contrast, age was significantly correlated with lifestyle only in men (p = 0.004). Conclusion: Teachers presented a lifestyle considered as very good and also a good consumption of functional foods. The better the lifestyle of the studied sample, the greater was the intake of functional foods. These results deserve to be highlighted in the academic community, as there are not many studies that evaluate the lifestyle of university teachers.