Effects of a nutrition-based health promotion program on nutritional adequacy, planned physical activity, body composition, job performance, and absenteeism among female airline reservationists
A quasi-experimental, nonequivalent control group, pretest-posttest study was conducted with 84 female reservation employees of Piedmont Airlines in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, and Nashville, Tennessee. The purposes were to assess: the dietary levels of kilocalories and certain nutrients including protein, vitamin A, vitamin C, iron, calcium, thiamin, riboflavin and niacin; hemoglobin; time spent in planned physical activity; cardiovascular fitness measured by heart rate after exercise; body composition by percentage of body fat, Body Mass Index, and percentage of desirable body weight; job performance and absenteeism; and to evaluate the effectiveness of a nutrition-based health promotion program in achieving improvements in nutritional adequacy, hemoglobin, time spent in planned physical activity, body composition, job performance and absenteeism. The subjects included only full-time employees, ranging in age from 19 to 60 years. The Winston-Salem group served as the experimental group and were involved in a seven-month worksite nutrition-based health promotion program which emphasized basic nutrition, the dietary guidelines, stress control, and exercise. The Nashville group served as the control group and they were not exposed to the health promotion program
