Original Research Article
Year: 2018 | Month: November | Volume: 8 | Issue: 11 | Pages: 44-55
Sleep, Psychological Status, Eating Behaviors and Activity Pattern among Adults with Varying Body Weight– A Comparison between Emotional and Non-Emotional Eaters
Behnaz Shahrokhisahneh1, Khyrunnisa Begum2
1Research Scholar, 2Professor (former),
DOS in Food Science and Nutrition, University of Mysore, Manasagangotri, Mysore, 57006, India
Corresponding Author: Behnaz Shahrokhisahneh
ABSTRACT
Background: Psychological status exerts profound influence on food choices and eating behaviors of people. Especially stress causes distress leading to eating problem, the most prevailing is emotional eating.
Objective: This study aimed to identify associative psychological status, eating and lifestyle pattern of the emotional eaters in an urban population from south India.
Method: This is a quantitative observational study, 161men, and 283women (total 444) aged 27 to 47 years with BMI varied between 18.5 and 40 participated. Purposive sampling method was adopted; information regarding demographic details, psychological status, eating and lifestyle patterns and health habits of participants were obtained using suitable standardized questionnaires.
Result: More than 50% of the study population both men and women was inflicted with emotional eating. Emotional eaters exhibited a greater propensity to develop obesity, higher percentage of emotional eater were overweight and obese as against non-emotional eater. Majority of emotional eater shad higher scores for anxiety, stress, and depression. They had sedentary lifestyle and exhibited snacking behavior, eating outside home, munching in significantly higher proportion. Emotional eaters had liking for calorie-rich foods such as fried foods, chocolate/toffee, sweets, ice cream and pizza.
Conclusion: Emotional eating among population in developing countries like India is on rise, this indicates the risk forincrease in obesity among population. Emotional eating was found to be associated with anxiety, stress and depression. Emotional eaters tend to develop poor eating habits and also have unhealthy food choices. This calls for an intense exercise to create awareness about the eating problems among the general population. A multi-disciplinary integrated approach should be adopted to achieve effective behavior change among target population.
Key words: Emotional eating; eating behaviors; psychological status; food choice; snacking and munching behaviors.