30–44 years (65.9%), were white Irish (90%), male (68.7%) and had a
tertiary education (77.3%). Most employees were not in a managerial
or supervisory role (78.4%) and usually worked during the day (68.1%).
Table 2 shows the lifestyle, physical status and dietary data for men
and women. Almost half of the study population had low physical activity
levels (45%). A total of 16.7% of employees were classified as current
smokers. A higher proportion of males (13.4%) reported consuming at
least 14 units of alcohol/week compared to females (3.1%). Almost half
of all employees reported their general health as ‘good’ (47%) and
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),