Abstract:
Objective: The objective of this study was to determine the prevalence of night eating syndrome and the factors associated with it among inbound call centre employees in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
Methodology: A cross sectional study among 217 inbound call centre employees was conducted at a call centre that is located in Kuala Lumpur during the study period of three weeks in September 2015. A simple random sampling was carried out and the employees who met the selection criteria were selected for this study. A night eating questionnaire (NEQ) was used to determine the night eating syndrome among the employees. The survey instruments to determine job stress, wellbeing, lifestyle, and eating psychometric were also completed by the subjects.
A sub sample of 8 respondents each were selected based on the presence of job stress and those who did not indicate the presence of stress for the salivary cortisol test. The salivary samples were collected in the morning and evening (in duplicates). ELISA test was performed to detect the cortisol levels in saliva.
Results: The proportion of inbound call centre employees who scored NEQ score of 25 and above is 12.0 %. Factors that were statistically significantly associated with NES are buffer time (seconds), exercise level, and emotional eating. Other factors had no association with NES.
Conclusion: The findings of this study showed that the prevalence of NES among the selected inbound call centre employees in Kuala Lumpur Malaysia was 12.0%. Multivariate analysis revealed that, those employees with higher buffer was significantly associated with NES. Similarly, those with satisfactory levels of exercise are more likely to have NES. Employees with emotional eating had a stronger association with NES. These findings bear potential implications for prevention of obesity and eating disorders. Employees may be benefitted by intervention of healthy eating activities at the work place.
Key words: Night eating syndrome (NES), job stress, depression, salivary cortisol level, inbound call centre employees.
