Nutritional habits, physical activity, body composition, and stress among operational and administrative military police officers

Abstract

Military police activity is a dangerous, stressful occupation that poses health risks. Nutritional habits, physical activity, body composition and perceived stress, in addition to being interrelated, influence components of professional performance, such as work motivation, general self-efficacy and absenteeism. The objective was to compare nutritional habits, physical activity, body mass index and perceived stress of military police officers working in operational and administrative services, of both sexes, and to investigate the correlation between these variables. The Mann-Whitney U test was used for the comparative analysis and, for the correlational study, the Pearson correlation coefficient. Perceived stress and physical activity were inversely correlated (r=-0.268; p<0.001). Nutritional habits correlated significantly: with physical activity (r=0.381; p<0.001), directly; and, conversely, body mass index (r=0.256; p<0.001) and perceived stress (r=-0.201; p<0.01). Military police officers from the operational service had significantly higher body mass index (U=3695; p<0.001) and physical activity (U=3776; p<0.001) than their counterparts from the administrative service. Men had significantly higher body mass index (U=1333; p<0.001) and physical activity (U=2205; p<0.01) than women, who had significantly higher stress levels than men (U=1927; p<0.001). The correlations and significant differences observed point to the need to implement personnel and health management policies aimed at improving the lifestyle, body composition and stress of military police officers. Study limitations and future directions are discussed.