•  
  •  
 

Abstract

Upon reaching the university level, all students face a new learning environment, which may be a very stressful experience. If this situation is not handled properly, it can cause stress and other psychological problems, which can affect students' performance and result in unhealthy coping mechanisms like eating disorders. The objective of this research is to inspect the association between stress levels and variations in body mass index among students at Wasit University, in addition to other socio-demographic factors such as student gender, age group, marital status, and college they study. A self-administered questionnaire containing three components: The socio-demographic background, perceived stress scale (comprising 10 questions, widely used to assess stress levels), and social habits were given to 822 students from different colleges at Wasit University. The majority of students had moderate stress 640 participants (77.86%). Very few students were found to have severe stress levels 172 participants (20.92%) and only 10 participants (1.22%) showed low stress levels. Academic-related stress had the highest prevalence in this population (33.7%). Stress was not found significant in any particular body mass index category. More than half of the participants (61%) had normal weight, 24% were overweight, 8% were underweight, and 7% were obese. The results of this study showed that, although the majority of students had moderate stress levels, mostly academic, there is no association between weight and this stress. Stress levels may be related to the type of college attended, fewer hours of studying, and fast-food intake.

References

[1] Heinen I, Bullinger M, Kocalevent RD. Perceived stress in first year medical students-associations with personal resources and emotional distress. BMC Med Educ 2017;17(1): 1e4. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12909-016-0841-8.

[2] Chacon-Cuberos R, Zurita-Ortega F, Olmedo-Moreno EM, Castro-Sanchez M. Relationship between academic stress, physical activity and diet in university students of education. Behav Sci 2019;9(6):59. https://doi.org/10.3390/bs9060059.

[3] Taher TMJ. Association between eating habits and body mass index in a sample of medical college students in Wasit University. Indian J Pub Health Res Develop 2019;10(6): 704e9. https://doi.org/10.5958/0976-5506.2019.01360.3

. [4] Zapata-Lamana R, Sanhueza-Campos C, Cigarroa I. Association between the physical activity behavioral profile and sedentary time with subjective well-being and mental health in Chilean university students during the COVID-19 Pandemic. Int J Environ Res Publ Health 2022;19(4):2107. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph19042107.

[5] Tomiyama AJ. Stress and obesity. Annu Rev Psychol 2019;70: 703e18. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-psych-010418-102936.

[6] Khalil AM, Almutairi NM, Alhejaili SS, Alsaedi MQ, Alharbi WK. Prevalence of stress and its association with body weight among medical students in Taibah University. Pharmacophore 2020;11(4):36e45.

[7] Solomou S, Logue J, Reilly S, Perez-Algorta G. A systematic review of the association of diet quality with the mental health of university students: implications in health education practice. Health Educ Res 2023;38(1):28e68. https://doi. org/10.1093/her/cyac035.

[8] Cheng SH, Kamil MK. Stress and food intake among university students-Is there a relationship. Sains Malays 2020; 49(1):121e8. https://doi.org/10.17576/jsm-2020-4901-14.

[9] Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. About adult BMI. 2022, June 3. Available at: https://www.cdc.gov/ healthyweight/assessing/bmi/adult_bmi/index.html.

[10] Qalawa SA. Association between stress and obesity among female students during COVID-19 pandemic at health colleges in Qassim university. Saudi J Nurs Health Care 2022;5(2):12e22. https://doi.org/10.36348/sjnhc.2022.v05i02. 001.

[11] Pourhoseingholi MA, Vahedi M, Rahimzadeh M. Sample size calculation in medical studies. Gastroenterol Hepatol Bed Bench 2013;6(1):14e7. PMID: 24834239; PMCID: PMC4017493.

[12] Satheesh BC, Prithviraj R, Prakasam PS. A study of perceived stress among undergraduate medical students of a private medical college in Tamil Nadu. Int J Sci Res 2015;4:994e7.

[13] Chowdhury R, Mukherjee A, Mitra K, Naskar S, Karmakar PR, Lahiri SK. Perceived psychological stress among undergraduate medical students: role of academic factors. Indian J Publ Health 2017;61:55e7. https://doi.org/10. 4103/0019-557X.200253.

[14] Al-Ghurairi, Abdul Rahman SH, Younis NM, Ahmed MM. Prevalence of weight gain among students of Mosul University, Iraq during quarantine 2020. Rawal Med J 2022;47:3.

[15] Alhazmi AH, Al Johani A. Prevalence and associated factors of eating disorders among students in Taiba University, Saudi Arabia: a cross-sectional study. Malaysian J Pub Health Med 2019;19(1):172e6. https://doi.org/10.37268/ mjphm/vol.19/no.1/art.80.

[16] Feda M, Alsahly SN, Al-Saadi AR, Al-Huthali AK, Nakhal FT, Alharbi HM, et al. Prevalence of stress and its association with body weight among medical students in Umm Al Qura university, Makkah 2021. Annals of the Romanian Society for Cell Biology 2021;25(6):21287e99. Available from: https://www.annalsofrscb.ro/index.php/ journal/article/view/11295.

[17] García-Martínez I, Perez-Nav ío E, Perez-Ferra M, QuijanoLopez R. Relationship between emotional intelligence, educational achievement and academic stress of pre-service teachers. Behav Sci 2021;11(7):95. https://doi.org/10.3390/ bs11070095.

[18] Pengpid S, Peltzer K. Prevalence of overweight/obesity and central obesity and its associated factors among a sample of university students in India. Obes Res Clin Pract 2014;8(6): e558e70. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.orcp.2013.12.003.

[19] Peltzer K, Pengpid S, Samuels TA, Ozcan NK, Mantilla C, € Rahamefy OH, et al. Prevalence of overweight/obesity and its associated factors among university students from 22 countries. Int J Environ Res Publ Health 2014;11(7):7425e41. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph110707425.

[20] Jia YF, Loo YT. Prevalence and determinants of perceived stress among undergraduate students in a Malaysian university. J Health Transl Med 2018;21(1):1e5.

[21] Seedhom AE, Kamel EG, Mohammed ES, Raouf NR. Predictors of perceived stress among medical and nonmedical college students, Minia, Egypt. Int J Prev Med 2019;10:107. https://doi.org/10.4103/ijpvm.IJPVM_6_18.

[22] Chen Y, Liu X, Yan N, Jia W, Fan Y, Yan H, et al. Higher academic stress was associated with increased risk of overweight and obesity among college students in China. Int J Environ Res Publ Health 2020;17(15):5559. https://doi.org/10. 3390/ijerph17155559.

[23] Alim SM, Rabbani MG, Karim E, Mullick MS, AlMamun A, Fariduzzaman, et al. Assessment of depression, anxiety and stress among first year MBBS students of a public medical college, Bangladesh. Bangl J Psychiat 2015;29(1):23e9. https://doi.org/10.3329/bjpsy.v29i1.32748.

[24] Shankar PR, Balasubramanium R, Ramireddy R, Diamante P, Barton B, Dwivedi NR. Stress and coping strategies among premedical and undergraduate basic science medical students in a Caribbean medical School. Educ Med J 2014;6(4): 48e56. https://doi.org/10.5959/eimj.v6i4.287.

[25] Saat NZ, Lubis SH, Zakaria NS, Ee X, Othman M, Shein TH, et al. Stress and its relationship with body mass index among 22 MA'AEN JOURNAL FOR MEDICAL SCIENCES 2024;3:14e23 biomedical science students in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. ASEAN J Psychiat 2010;11(2):190e7.

[26] Tantawy S, Karamat NI, Al Gannas RS, Khadem SA, Kamel DM. Exploring the relationship between body mass index and anxiety status among Ahlia university students. Open Access Maced J Med Sci 2020;8(B):20e5. https://doi. org/10.3889/oamjms.2020.3226.

[27] Anuradha R, Dutta R, Raja JD, Sivaprakasam P, Patil AB. Stress and stressors among medical undergraduate students: a cross-sectional study in a private medical college in Tamil Nadu. Indian J Community Med 2017;42(4):222e5. https:// doi.org/10.4103/ijcm.IJCM_287_16.

[28] Kongsomboon K. Psychological problems and overweight in medical students compared to students from Faculty of Humanities, Srinakharinwirot University, Thailand. J Med Assoc Thail 2011;93(2):106. PMID: 21302403.

[29] Bert F, Ferrara M, Boietti E, Langiano E, Savatteri A, Scattaglia M, et al. Depression, suicidal ideation and perceived stress in Italian humanities students: a crosssectional study. Psychol Rep 2022;125(1):256e79. https://doi. org/10.1177/0033294120984441. .

[30] Satpathy P, Siddiqui N, Parida D, Sutar R. Prevalence of stress, stressors, and coping strategies among medical undergraduate students in a medical college of Mumbai. J Educ Health Promot 2021;10:318. https://doi.org/10.4103/jehp. jehp_1395_20.

[31] Zhu C, Yao Y, Xiong Y, Cheng M, Chen J, Zhao R, et al. Somatostatin neurons in the basal forebrain promote highcalorie food intake. Cell Rep 2017;20(1):112e23. https://doi. org/10.1016/j.celrep.2017.06.007.

[32] Dutheil S, Ota KT, Wohleb ES, Rasmussen K, Duman RS. High-fat diet induced anxiety and anhedonia: impact on brain homeostasis and inflammation. Neuropsychopharmacology 2016;41:1874e87. https://doi.org/10.1038/npp.2015.357.

[33] Wang J, Ran X, Ye J, Deng R, Dang W, Fan Y, et al. ObesityAssociated anxiety is prevalent among college students and alleviated by calorie restriction. Nutrients 2022;14(17):3518. https://doi.org/10.3390/nu14173518.

[34] Nebhinani N, Kuppili PP, Mamta. Stress, burnout, and coping among first-year medical undergraduates. J Neurosci Rural Pract 2021;12(3):483e9. https://doi.org/10.1055/s-0041- 1727576.

Download

Share

COinS