Page 35 - Petelin, Ana. 2024. Ed. Zdravje delovno aktivnih in starejših odraslih | Health of the Working-Age and Older Adults. Zbornik prispevkov z recenzijo | Proceedings. Koper: University of Primorska Press

We collected data on eating habits from March 5 to April 23, 2023, analysed the
weekly menu, and compared energy and nutrient needs with consumed meals.
Data were analysed using Microsoft Excel and IBM SPSS Statistics. To test the
statistical difference in nutritional and energy values of the menus, we used the
Wilcoxon signed-rank test, and Spearman’s rank correlation coefficient to test
the statistically significant correlation of anthropometric measurements. Sev-
en men aged 21 to 34 years from the therapeutic community Skupnost Srečan-
je in Nova Gorica participated in the study.

Results
The results of the participants’ body composition measurements were pre-
sented using descriptive statistics. The average age of participants is 24.6 ± 5.0
years, the average height is 1.80 ± 0.05 m, and body weight is 85.71 ± 6.29 kg. The
body mass index (BMI) averages 26.51 ± 2.25 kg/m². The average muscle mass
is 65.47 ± 2.80 kg, and the percentage of body fat ranges from 13.6% to 26.0%, 35
with an average of 19.43%. Visceral fat is on average 4.79 ± 2.48, and the aver-
age metabolic age is 27.0 ± 10.9 years. The average calculated basal metabolic
rate (BMR) is 8606 kJ ± 374 kJ (2049 kcal ± 89 kcal). We analysed the statisti-
cal correlation between body composition parameters using Spearman’s corre-
lation coefficient (r ), shown in Figure 1. The results showed a statistically sig- eating habits in therapeutic community
s
nificant, strong, positive correlation (r = 0.767; p < 0.05) between BMI (kg/m²)
s
and visceral fat. On the other hand, there was no statistically significant cor-
relation between BMI and muscle mass (r = 0.321; p = 0.482). The Wilcoxon
s
test results show that the energy values of the provided menu are significant-
ly lower than the daily requirements (Z = -2.366; p < 0.05), meaning that the
participants do not meet their daily energy needs with the provided menu.
The average difference between daily requirements (3279 kcal/13770 kJ) and the
consumed amount (3102 kcal/13,027.4 kJ) is minimal, indicating adequacy of
energy needs. Statistically significant differences are shown between the con-
sumed amount of protein and the provided menu (Z = -2.371; p = 0.018) and be-
tween the consumed amount and recommendations (Z = -2.366; p = 0.018), in-
dicating that the consumed amount of protein is higher than recommended.
There is also a statistically significant difference between recommendations,
the provided menu, and the consumed amount of fat (Z = -2.366; p = 0.018), as
participants did not meet the recommended fat intake. The average difference
in consumed carbohydrates (M = 439.1 g) and recommendations (M = 443.8 g)
is minimal. The consumed menus do not exceed recommendations for saturat-
ed fatty acids (Z = -2.366; p < 0.05), while there is no statistically significant dif-
ference between the consumed amount and recommendations for simple sug-
ars (Z = -1.014; p = 0.310). Figure 3 shows the coverage of nutritional needs for
each participant. The consumed dietary fibre (M = 37.9 g) is higher than rec-
ommended (M = 30.0 g) and the provided menu (M = 22.4 g). For sodium,
there is a statistically significant difference between recommendations and the
provided menu (Z = -2.530; p = 0.011) and between recommendations and the