Relationship between emotional eating and nutritional intake in adult women with overweight and obesity: a cross-sectional study
Abstract
Emotional eating (EE) is particularly prevalent in overweight or obese women, who may turn to food as a way to cope with stress, sadness, or anxiety. Limited research has been conducted on the association between EE and nutritional intake. Therefore, present study was designed to explore this association in adult women with overweight and obesity. In this cross-sectional study, the relationship between EE and nutritional intake in 303 overweight and obese women (aged 18–50 years) was examined. The researchers used the validated semi-quantitative Food Frequency Questionnaire (FFQ) to assess participants’ nutritional intake and the Dutch Eating Behavior Questionnaire (DEBQ) to evaluate their eating behavior. To determine the association between EE and nutritional intake, we employed the multiple linear regression analysis. The frequency of high intensity EE was 64.4% among the study participants and the mean total score of EE subscale of DBEQ was 2.32 ± 0.81. The total score of EE was positively associated with the energy intake (β = 0.396, P = 0.007), even after adjusting for age and BMI. In addition, a significant inverse association was found between the score of EE and the daily intake of calcium (β= -0.219, P = 0.026), riboflavin (β= -0.166, P = 0.043), and vitamin B12 (β= -0.271, P = 0.035), independent from energy and age. Also the results showed a significant positive association between the score of EE and the frequency of daily intake of cracker, muffin, cake, cream…
How strong is the evidence?
Evidence Hub reads this as a cross-sectional, done in people. Its evidence level is 4 of 5 (Low · observational). Observational designs can show an association but not prove cause.
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