The effect of sociodemographic characteristics of university students on emotional eating behavior

Traces of social culture in the lived experiences of emotional eating among Iranian obese women

INTRODUCTION

Emotional eating is a situation with harmful consequences for the physical, mental and social health of humans. In this regard, the present study aimed to explain the role of social culture in the lived experiences of emotional eating in Iranian obese women.

METHODS

This was a qualitative study conducted using the phenomenological approach. Purposive heterogeneous sampling method was used to select 17 women with body mass index of 30 and above who had emotional eating experience. Data were collected through semi-structured and face-to-face interviews. A guideline designed by the research team, whose content validity was confirmed by the expert panel, was used to conduct the interviews. Data were analyzed based on Diekelmann 7-step approach, and trustworthiness was evaluated by Lincoln and Guba criteria.

RESULTS

The main topic of the findings was social culture and emotional eating, which was explained by three themes: "influence of social culture", "language culture of eating" and "the culture of eating together". Influence of social culture had three sub-themes: "a legal and popular entertainment", "hospitality culture: encouraging guests to overeat", and "coping with the social stigma of thinness and obesity". The language culture of eating had two sub-themes of "association of common infinitives" and "the symbol of swallowing anger ". Also, "culture of eating together" included 2 sub-topics with the titles "pleasant symbol of belonging and love" and "the symbol of family cohesion".

CONCLUSION

This study found that social culture through language, norms, and customs can initiate and/or reinforce emotional eating. The results of this study can be used in the design of interventions to improve emotional eating behavior in women by emphasizing the characteristics of Iranian social culture.

Interoceptive awareness and emotional eating in college women: the role of appetite and emotional awareness

Objective: Emotional eating is prevalent among college women. Deficits in interoceptive awareness, or the ability to perceive and identify internal sensations, are associated with emotional eating. Separately examining the specific components of interoceptive awareness, appetite and emotional awareness, in relation to emotional eating may improve prevention and treatment of emotional eating in college women.Participants: 143 women at an urban Northeastern university.Methods: This was a cross-sectional study using self-report measures of interoceptive awareness, appetite and emotional awareness, emotional eating, and depression. Simultaneous regression analyses examined the independent association of appetite and emotional awareness with emotional eating, controlling for depression.Results: Consistent with hypotheses, lower interoceptive awareness was associated with higher emotional eating. Appetite and emotional awareness, were each uniquely associated with emotional eating independent of depression, even when entered simultaneously.Conclusions: Future prevention and treatment of emotional eating in college women should target improvements in appetite and emotional awareness.

The Indicator of Emotional Eating and Its Effects on Dietary Patterns among Female Students at Qassim University

Emotional eating (EE) is considered as the inclination to eat in response to emotions and is associated with certain syndromes. In this sense, we explored the indices of EE and its association with dietary patterns among female students at Qassim University in Saudi Arabia. A cross-sectional study of 380 participants (aged 18-29 years, female students) was performed. Anthropometric measurements of the participants were taken, such as height, body mass index, fat mass and hip-waist circumference as well as the Emotional Eating Scale (EES). The classification of the ESS included the thresholds of 44.7, 43.9 and 11.3% for low, moderate and high EE, respectively. Linear regression after adjustment showed that fat intake was a significant predictor of EE (p = 0.031) as well as feelings of enthusiasm. We also observed an interesting indication: fat intake (p = 0.011) and educational level (p < 0.05) were significantly associated with, and could be significant predictors of, EE. The results highlight the importance of emotional eating, its relationship with the consumption of foods that contain fat and understanding how it develops by raising awareness of the importance of healthy food for a healthy lifestyle.

Association Between Emotional Eating, Sociodemographic Characteristics, Physical Activity, Sleep Duration, and Mental and Physical Health in Young Adults

BACKGROUND

Emotional eating (EmE) is one of the most common eating behaviors maladaptive among young adults, however, in the Peruvian context, it remains unexplored.

OBJECTIVE

The aim of the study was to determine the association between negative EmE, sociodemographic characteristics, physical activity, sleep duration, and mental and physical health in young adults.

METHODS

A cross-sectional study was conducted in 400 young Peruvian adults living in three regions of Peru (coast, jungle, and highlands). An online survey was used to collect information on sociodemographic characteristics, physical activity, sleep duration, depressive symptoms, anxiety, hypertension, and negative EmE. In addition, self-reported anthropometric data were collected to calculate body mass index (BMI).

RESULTS

Approximately 55.8% of women presented negative EmE. Logistic regression analysis revealed that participants aged 30-39 years were less likely to have negative EmE in both female and male gender, OR; 0.24, 95% CI; 0.08-0.66, p<0.01 and OR; 0.40, 95% CI; 0.16-0.97, p<0.05, respectively. Perform physical activity 3 to 4 times 5.22 (95% CI: 1.31-20.78), 1 to 2 times a week 5.77 (95% CI: 1.91-17.44), and never 15.18 (95% CI: 3.90-59.00) were associated with negative EmE. Moreover, sleeping less than 7 hours per day (OR; 2.26, 95% CI; 1.04-4.90), depressive symptoms (OR = 6.29, 95% CI: 1.27-31.19), anxiety (OR = 14.13, 95% CI: 2.46-80. 97, p<0.01), hypertension (OR = 7.58, 95% CI: 1.24-46.17), and BMI ≥25 (overweight/obese) (OR = 1.51, 95% CI: 1.66-3.41) were associated with negative EmE.

CONCLUSION

The findings show that there is an association between negative EmE, sociodemographic characteristics, physical activity, sleep duration, and mental and physical health in young adults.

Psychometric comparison of the Persian Salzburg Emotional Eating Scale and Emotional Eater Questionnaire among Iranian adults

BACKGROUND

The Salzburg Emotional Eating Scale (SEES) and the Emotional Eater Questionnaire (EEQ) are self-reported measures developed to evaluate emotional eating in adults in Western countries. To date, the psychometric properties of the SEES and the EEQ have not been studied among Iranian adults. The aim of the current study is to translate the SEES and the EEQ from English to Persian and examine the psychometric properties of the SEES and EEQ.

METHOD

The sample of this study comprised of 489 Iranian adults who completed the SEES and the EEQ questionnaires online.

RESULTS

Findings of face, content, and construct validity tests confirmed that the SEES and the EEQ had acceptable validity and appropriate reliability. The results from confirmatory factor analysis showed acceptable goodness-of-fit indices for two measures.

CONCLUSION

Results of Average Variance Extracted, Construct Reliability, and goodness-of-fit indices showed that the SEES was better for evaluating emotional eating among Iranian adults than the EEQ.

Adherence to Mediterranean Diet, Alcohol Consumption and Emotional Eating in Spanish University Students

(1) Introduction: The university period may increase the risk of different unhealthy habits, such as low adherence to the Mediterranean diet, high alcohol consumption and eating in response to specific emotions. The aim of this study was to detect early-risk alcohol consumption and alcohol dependence (ADS), the degree of adherence to the Mediterranean diet and emotional eating in university students of the Madrid community. (2) Methods: For each individual, anthropometric parameters, the Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test (AUDIT), AUDIT-Consumption (AUDIT-C), the Mediterranean Diet Adherence Screener (MEDAS) and the Emotional Eater Questionnaire (EEQ) were assessed. (3) Results: A total of 584 university students aged 20.5 (sex ratio = 0.39) were enrolled in a cross-sectional study. In total, 63.6% of students showed low adherence to the Mediterranean diet, with no differences by sex (64.3% female versus 61.5% male, p = 0.19). According to the AUDIT questionnaire, 26.2% of participants were categorized as high-risk drinkers and 7.7% as ADS. About 38.6% of the students were categorized as eating very emotionally or eating emotionally, and 37.2% were categorized as low emotional eaters. A weak positive correlation was observed between the EEQ and BMI in female students (rho= 0.15, p = 0.03). (4) Conclusions: University students in our sample showed a low adherence to the Mediterranean diet, an important high-risk alcohol consumption and low emotional eating.