Relationship between psychological distress, eating behaviour and body fatness in university students

Background: Psychological distress is a constant problem for university students, it can be related to excessive academic work, fear of failure, emotional exhaustion, and social pressures, which could affect eating behaviour and body composition. The objective was to relate psychological distress with eating behaviour and body composition in health occupations students. Methods: Cross-sectional correlational study in 92 subjects? undergraduate health careers. The instruments applied were Kessler s psychological distress scale (K10) and the Three Factor Eating Questionnaire (TFEQ), body composition was determined by multi-frequency bioimpedance measurement. Spearman s rho was used to determine the correlations. Results: 57% of the sample presented high or very high psychological distress, psychological distress was significantly correlated with the percentage of fat (Rho=0.269: p=0.009), and with the three TFEQ factors: cognitive restriction (Rho=0.296: p=0.004), uncontrolled eating (Rho=0.289: p=0.005) and emotional eating (Rho=0.398: p<0.001). Conclusions: Psychological distress during the university stage should be considered a possible factor of overweight and eating disorders.