consumed food supplements (42.4%). Half of participants were overweight
(48.6%) and centrally obese (51.2%). Overweight and obesity
were higher among males (54.1% and 22.7%) compared to females
(36.3% and 19.7%). Similarly, more men (16%) than women (5.8%)
were classified as hypertensive and 36.7% of the total study population
exceeded the tolerable upper limit of 6 g of salt per day according to
their urinary sodium intakes (36.7%). A higher proportion of women
(52.9%) than men (36%) had a DASH score in the highest quintile, indicating
better diet quality (Table 1).
Nutrition knowledge and DASH scores
The internal consistency for the overall nutrition knowledge score
was 0.91. It was measured for each domain: advice from the health
experts: 0.56; food groups and food sources: 0.89; food choice: 0.39
and diet–disease relationships; 0.74. Cronbach's alpha ranges from 0 to
1 and a score of ≥0.7 is adequately reliable (Nunnally and Bernstein,
1994). Employees with nutrition related qualifications (n= 11 (1.3%))
had a higher mean nutrition knowledge score (men 78.8 (SD 13.9),