Are Women With Higher Professional Status More Sedentary Compared to Men?

Overview

It is aimed to understand the gender differences on factors affecting the resting metabolic rate of people in different professional status. The relation between daily and weekly walking and sitting time, body mass index (kg/m2), Ponderal Index (kg/cm), waist-to-hip ratio of the participants will be searched. In this context, the demographic data (age, gender, neck and waist circumference (cm), occupation, education level) of the participants will be gathered with a questionnaire, specifically prepared for this study. The body composition analyses and International Physical Activity Level Questionnaire (IPAQ), Healthy Eating Index (HEI) will also be used to understand their body composition, physical activity level and eating habits, respectively. The data will be compared to understand the effects of education level and type of occupation on their physical activity level, as well as, the effects of trainings on adapting healthy behaviour of the participants as physical activity, healthy eating habits in relation to gender and professional status.

Being overweight and obese are becoming serious health care problems in developed countries as well as in Turkey. Both are associated with severe health problems as increased risk of heart disease, hypertension, diabetes, dyslipidemia, stroke, gallbladder disease, osteoarthritis, sleep apnea, respiratory and renal problems, and certain types of cancer. The behavioral and environmental factors (i.e. sedentary lifestyles combined with excess energy intake, unhealthy diet, low level of education and poverty) are primarily responsible for the dramatic increase of obesity. In Turkey, the prevalence of obesity has increased by 65% among men and 30% among women during the 90's. According to the recent findings of The National Household Research the incidence of being overweight was 31.35% and obese was 12.2% among those above 18 years. This was 28.93% and 14.59% in females and 33.64% and 9.70% in males, respectively. It was also reported that the incidence of being overweight had a tendency to increase linearly by age: 2.53% between 18-24 years, 7.96% between 25 - 34 years, 15.57% between 35-44 years, 22.61% between 45-54 years, 22.55% between years 55 - 64 years. This increase in obesity with aging may not be only due to the decrease in the fat-free mass but also due to an impaired ability to regulate the energy balance with age. Therefore, the age-related decline in basal metabolic rate, which is also related to the reduction in fat-free mass may alter the energy balance and contribute to weight gain. Thus, physical activity is essential for obese subjects in order to maintain or to increase their basal metabolic rate as well as their daily energy expenditure to enhance their weight loss. Therefore, regular physical exercise may be considered as an effective tool to increase the resting metabolic rate by improving the muscle mass. However, the modern life, equipped with technological support, has eventually decreased the amount of daily physical activities in household tasks, transportation or in work environments. As Kirk and Rhodes stated the positions of higher professional status are more likely to engage in sedentary work-related behavior (i.e. sitting) compared to those working in positions of lower professional status (i.e. manual labor). Additionally, male were more likely to be employed in blue-collar or high-manual-labor positions that require high physical activity compared to women. The women mostly prefer non-occupational and non-leisure activities; for instance house-work. It is also reported that low level physical activity habit is higher among people having office work and living in the cities in Turkey. Therefore, we have aimed to evaluate the physical activity level, physical status and the eating habits of the people in higher or lower professional statuses, and observe the gender differences.