Keywords
Obesity
Eating habits
Medical students
How to Cite
Copyright © | All rights reserved.
The journal holds the exclusive copyright for the publication of this article under the terms of Brazilian law 9610/98.
Partial reproduction
The use of parts of the texts, figures and questionnaire of the article is free, being mandatory the citation of the authors and journal.
Total reproduction
It is expressly prohibited and must be authorized by the journal.
Abstract
Objective: To identify the relationship between stress and Body Mass Index (BMI) in medical students, analyzing how factors inherent to the course influence eating habits and nutritional status. Methods: Observational, analytical, and cross-sectional study with a quantitative approach, conducted with 288 students between the 1st and 8th semesters. The validated instruments MSSQ, PSS, and TFEQ-R21 were used, in addition to a sociodemographic questionnaire, with analysis by descriptive and inferential statistics and logistic regression models (p<0.05). Results: It was found that 91.3% of the students have moderate to very high stress levels, with a prevalence of overweight of 24.3%, being significantly higher in males (45%). There was no direct linear correlation between perceived stress and BMI; However, stress correlated positively with emotional eating (44.1%) and uncontrolled eating (46.8%), which acted as direct predictors of increased BMI in the sample. Conclusion: Academic stress contributes to weight gain indirectly, this process being mediated by the adoption of dysfunctional eating behaviors used as coping mechanisms. The implementation of institutional strategies focused on mental health and nutritional education is urgently needed.
References
ABREU KL, et al. Estresse ocupacional e Síndrome de Burnout no exercício profissional da psicologia. Psicologia: Ciência e Profissão, 2021; 41: e219854.
AGUILAR-YDIÁQUEZ C, et al. Body mass index in medicine students: Relationship with stress, eating habits and physical activity. Revista de la Facultad de Medicina Humana, 2022; 22(2): 359– 366.
ALSHEHRI M, ELBADAWI A. The Association between eating disorders and stress among medical student: a cross-sectional study. International Journal of Advanced Research, 2022; 10(08): 1357– 1367.
ASHISH N, et al. Prevalence of obesity and overweight and factors associated with it among medical students of Bundelkhand region: A cross-sectional study. Asian Journal of Medical Sciences, 2023; 14(10): 96–102.
BALVINDER S, NEELESH KUMAR M. The Cortisol Connection: Weight Gain and Stress Hormones. Archives of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences, 2024; 8(1): 009–013.
CAVALCANTE VKG, et al. Análise da prevalência de obesidade e sobrepeso entre estudantes de medicina de uma universidade privada de um município do estado do Maranhão. Revista Eletrônica Acervo Saúde, 2024; 24(5): e15078.
DAKANALIS A, et al. The Association of Emotional Eating with Overweight/Obesity, Depression, Anxiety/Stress, and Dietary Patterns: A Review of the Current Clinical Evidence. Nutrients, 2023; 15(5): 1173.
DALLMAN M, et al. Chronic stress and obesity: A new view of “comfort food”. Proceedings of theNational Academy of Sciences, 2003; 100(20): 11696–11701.
DEVI CS, et al. Prevalence of obesity and its association with stress levels among undergraduate medical students. International Journal of Clinical Biochemistry and Research, 2021; 8(3): 222–225.
GOENS D, et al. Obesity, Chronic Stress, and Stress Reduction. Gastroenterology Clinics of North America, 2023; 52(2): 347–362.
HABIB K, et al. NEUROENDOCRINOLOGY OF STRESS. Endocrinology and Metabolism Clinics of North America, 2001; 30(3): 695–728.
JAKUBIAK G, et al. Oxidative Stress in Association with Metabolic Health and Obesity in Young Adults. Oxidative Medicine and Cellular Longevity, 2021; 2021: 9987352.
JAYARAJAH U, et al. Validating the Medical Students’ Stressor Questionnaire (MSSQ) from a SriLankan medical faculty. Journal of Taibah University Medical Sciences, 2020; 15(5): 344.
JBIR R, et al. Role of Body Mass Index on Perceived Stress in Medical Students. European Psychiatry, 2023; 66(S1): S907–S907.
KAM SXL, et al. Estresse em Estudantes ao longo da Graduação Médica. Revista Brasileira de Educação Médica, 2019; 43(1): 246–253.
LU S, et al. The evolution of the concept of stress and the framework of the stress system. Cell Stress, 2021; 5(6): 76–85.
MANDIOLA MI, et al. Perfeccionismo, estrés académico y ansiedad social en mulheres estudantes de medicina y risco de padecer un trastorno alimentario: un modelo multivariado. Revista médica de Chile, 2022; 150(8): 1046–1053.
MASOOD B, MOORTHY M. Causes of obesity: a review. Clinical Medicine, 2023; 23(4): 284–291.
NATACCI LC, FERREIRA JÚNIOR M. The three factor eating questionnaire - R21: tradução para o português e aplicação em mulheres brasileiras. Revista de Nutrição, 2011; 24(3): 383–394.
NIKOLIC A, et al. Smartphone addiction, sleep quality, depression, anxiety, and stress among medical students. Frontiers in Public Health, 2023; 11: 1210214.
RAOUF N, et al. The risk of Obesity in relation to dietary habits among medical students at Minia University: Faculty of medicine, Minia, Egypt. Minia Journal of Medical Research, 2022; 33(4): 105– 114.
SANTIAGO IS, et al. Stress and exhaustion among medical students: a prospective longitudinal study on the impact of the assessment period on medical education. BMC Medical Education, 2024; 24(1): 630.
SELYE H. Stress, a tensão da vida. São Paulo: Ibrasa - Instituição Brasileira de Difusão Cultural, 1959.
SONAWANE S, et al. To study the influence of stress level with obesity in medical students of India. IP International Journal of Forensic Medicine and Toxicological Sciences, 2022; 6(4): 153–157.
UNIVERSIDADE DE SÃO PAULO. 2024. Cálculo amostral - Departamento de Estatística, Faculdade de Ciências - Campus de Bauru. Disponível em: http://estatistica.bauru.
usp.br/calculoamostral/sobre.php. Acessado em: 10 de novembro de 2024.
XIAO T, et al. Psychometric validation of the Perceived Stress Scale (PSS-10) among family caregivers of people with schizophrenia in China. BMJ open, 2023; 13(11): e076372.