Determination of distress, emotional eating and internalized weight bias levels of Turkish pregnant women

Abstract

This study was conducted to determine the stress, emotional eating and weight bias levels of Turkish pregnant women. The study sample was composed of 210 pregnant women, who met the research inclusion criteria and admitted to the obstetrics and gynaecology outpatient clinics of Bingol Hospital for Obstetrics and Gynaecology. Research data were collected between December 2018 and June 2019, using face-to-face interview technique. Personal Information Form, Tilburg Pregnancy Distress Scale (TPDS), Internalised Weight Bias Scale (IWBS), and Emotional Eating sub-scale items of the Netherlands Eating Behaviour Questionnaire used to collect data. In our study, 47.9% of pregnant women were found to be overweight or obese according to the pre-pregnancy body mass index (BMI) average. Pregnant women experience a moderate level of stress, emotional eating and weight bias. It was found that there was a statistically significant relationship between the weight bias score averages and the emotional eating and stress score averages of the pregnant women (p < .05). In our study, stress, emotional eating and weight bias score averages of pregnant women in the 3rd trimester were found to be higher than that of the pregnant women in the 2nd trimester (p < .05). It has been determined that nearly 1in 2 pregnant women was overweight or obese, when BMI level of the women increased, weight stigma and emotional eating of them also increased.

IMPACT STATEMENT

• What is already known on this subject? To be overweight or obese pre-pregnancy is risk for pregnancy complications and adverse birth outcomes.

• What do the results of this study add? It is important to inform nurses about the relationship between stress, weight bias, eating disorders, and obesity; moreover, care should be providing with the awareness that pregnant women with obesity are at greater risk in terms of these factors. It is of great importance to provide the necessary training and counselling by nurses to ensure the psychological adaptation of pregnant women to childbirth and the postpartum period. Besides, any disadvantage or disparity between overweight and obese pregnant women in the care process should be eliminated, and all pregnant women, regardless of their body size, should have equal access to supportive prenatal and postnatal care.

• What are the implications of these findings for clinical practice and/or further research? It is of great importance to providing training and consultation by nurses on coping with stress and stigma and eating during pregnancy in order to ensure psychological adjustment of the pregnant women to childbirth and the postpartum period, which are at risk in terms of stress, emotional eating and weight bias factors.

Keywords:

• Distress
• emotional eating
• weight bias
• pregnant women
• mental health

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

The author(s) received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.