Stress and Dietary Pattern Effect on Overweight and Obesity Among Technical Nursing Students

Abstract

Many adolescents suffer from common mental disorders such as stress, which affects health through the psychosocial process, eating behavior, food choices and physical activity. During adolescence, dietary patterns are formed and can affect the occurrence of diseases in later life. Stress, dietary pattern, and obesity are interlinked. Stress increases the risk of excess intake of calorie – dense food which result in obesity. Aim: this study aims to assess the stress and dietary pattern effect on overweight and obesity among technical nursing students. Design: A descriptive relational research design was conducted in this study. Setting: This study was conducted at all nursing institutes of Cairo Curative Organization's Hospitals (Heliopolis Hospital, Mabarret Masr Al-Qadimah Hospital, Mabara El Maadi Hospital, Coptic Hospital and El-Islah El-Islamy Hospital). Sample: Purposive sample of 85 overweight and obese students. Tools of data collection: Interview questionnaire (Socio-demographic data and feeding pattern data), compulsive Eating Scale and perceived Stress Scale. Results: Results of the study showed that, more than half of technical nursing students under study had positive family history of obesity and one third of them were obese and had high compulsivity level. Conclusions: More than three quarters of technical nursing students under study had moderate level of stress, and there was a positive correlation between dietary pattern and level of stress, also, positive correlation between overweight, obesity and level of stress. Recommendations: Future studies should be done on large numbers of nursing students about their eating behavior and how they decrease their stress level. Keywords: Stress, Dietary Pattern, Overweight, Obesity.