In the present work we decided to find out more about nutritional behaviour at persons between 55-70 years from the four activity domains, representative for the professional background of the Dolj county (agriculture, education, industry and health), using the following hypothesis of work: the grade of medical culture specific for some groups of population induces decisive changes in the nutritional behaviour and, after that, in the health state and professional performance.
Material and method: 129 subjects were included in the research, with the age between 55 and 70 years, selected from the recalled activity sectors. With the aim of knowing the nutritional behaviour, we have done a nutritional inquiry, each subject completed thee kinds of questionnairies.
Results: The farmers and the subjects from industry preferred to eat cheese, eggs, vegetable concentrated lipids and cereal products which were consumed in excess; on the oher hand, they ate few meat and meat products, fish, animal concentrated lipids, vegetables and fruits, sugar and sweets. The educators preferred more various food: meat products, cheese, eggs, vegetable concentrated lipids, cereal products, bread, dried vegetables, sugar and sweets, but they consumed few milk, meat, vegetables and fruit. The food preffered by the persons coming from health was: meat and meat products, cheese, eggs, vegetable concentrated lipids, cereal products, dried vegetables but some of them were eaten in excess. Any proteins were consumed in excess by the subjects coming from agriculture, education and health, and almost normally by the persons coming from industry. Sweets were deficiently used by the persons coming from agriculture and industry and in excess by those ones coming from education and health. Lower caloric values were observed in patients belonging to the second age group coming from health and education. Mineral and vitamins consumption was in deficit in all the subjects we studied.
Conclusion: We could identify two kinds of nutritional behaviour: one common for the persons from agriculture and industry and the other very resembling for the persons from educational and medical sector.