Relación del estado nutricional y alimentación emocional en adultos pertenecientes a la parroquia El Valle. 2023

Abstract

Background: Obesity and overweight represent a problem worldwide. This phenomenon has been linked to several factors, including emotional factors. Objective: To establish the relationship between nutritional status and emotional eating in adults belonging to the El Valle parish. Materials and methods: Observational, analytical cross-sectional study. The sample was 414 adults applying the proportion formula. The information was analyzed in the free software PSPP 1.2.0. To measure the association of the factors, chi square, Fisher's test and the prevalence ratio were used with a 95% confidence interval and a statistical significance of p < 0.05. The study was approved by the Human Research Ethics Committee of the University of Cuenca. Results: the female population participated in a higher proportion (63.3%), with ages between 20 - 29 years. Regarding the nutritional status, overweight and obesity are present in 56.6% of the population. 51.9% and 71.3% of men and women respectively are emotional eaters. A statistically significant association between nutritional status and emotional eating is estimated. In addition, an association was found with: hours of sleep (PR 1.41 IC 1.05 - 1.88), physical activity (PR 1.61 IC 1.22 - 2.11) and depression (PR 1.48 IC 1 .13 – 1.95); all statistically significant (p < 0.05). Conclusions: More than half of the participants are overweight or obese, with a high frequency of emotional eating; with a statistically significant association between these two variables. The factors associated with nutritional status were: presence of depression, fewer hours of sleep and low level of physical activity.