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

Abstract

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.

Keywords:

• emotional eating
• anxiety
• body mass index
• depression
• mental health
• sleep duration
• physical activity

Data Sharing Statement

The datasets used and/or analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

Acknowledgments

We thank the participants of the study.

Disclosure

The authors declare that there is no conflict of interest.

Additional information

Funding

Open access funding provided by Universidad Señor de Sipán (DIRECTORY RESOLUTION N°015-2022/ PD-USS) and Universidad Peruana Unión (Grant 041- 2022/SA).