Assessment of Dietary Menu and Staff Satisfaction with It in Selected Military Areas of the Country

Proper nutrition is one of the most important pillars of health that plays an important role in the physical and mental fitness of military forces. Nutritional deficiencies endanger the performance, efficiency and health of staff and can lead to malnutrition and weight loss. Therefore, studying the status of dietary intake and the level of staff satisfaction from nutritional status will be effective in improving the quality of nutritional services. The aim of this study was to evaluate the dietary menu and staff satisfaction with it in selected military areas of the country in comparison to military dietary reference intake.

In this descriptive cross-sectional study, 684 military personnel from different military districts of the country were studied in 2013. Quality and quantity of served food, satisfaction from menu and sanitary status of the dining room were evaluated using a researcher-made questionnaire. Also, normal and operational menus were compared with target and standard values in order to check the menus and dietary intake of staff.

After evaluating the diet using Nutritionist IV software, it was found that the dietary intake of carbohydrate and protein and some micronutrients exceed the standard of military intake but in the case of most of micronutrients, vitamin A, D, B5, biotin, folic acid, B12, and zinc were found to be deficient in all seasons. In the case of the operational ration there was a lack of calcium, potassium and phosphorus intake in addition to the lack of some vitamins. The assessment of quality and quantity of served food, satisfaction from menu and sanitary status of the dining room showed that the lowest satisfaction is related to the operational category and the highest amount is related to the headquarters. Also, a comparison of satisfaction using the one-way ANOVA test showed that the highest satisfaction rate from the menu was in provincial employees and the lowest was in operational staff (P <0.05).

The present study showed that the highest level of employee’s nutritional status satisfaction was observed in the headquarters and the lowest level was observed in the operational category. Therefore, the use of supplements or the inclusion of some food groups in the diet that meet the needs of the body and attention to the satisfaction of forces (which is an effective factor in the dietary intake and nutrition status) is important.