Relationship between eating behavior, body mass index, depression, anxiety, and stress in patients applying to primary care

Eating behavior is a broad term that includes food selection and orientation, feeding practices, dieting and weight gain, eating disorders and eating-related problems such as nutritional disorders. Studies have found that many psychological and behavioral conditions such as nutritional problems, abnormal eating behaviors, and various changes in mood are associated with the body mass index (BMI) of individuals. It has also been revealed that mechanisms supporting various psychosocial disorders such as anxiety, depression and stress are associated with eating behaviors. Our research was conducted with adults aged 18 and over who applied to family health centers (FHCs) in 3 different regions of Denizli city center; Şifabul FHC, Bağbaşı FHC and Deliktaş FHC between April 1 and June 30, 2024. In our cross-sectional and analytical study, a total of seventy-question questionnaire consisting of the Sociodemographic-Clinical Form consisting of 16 questions, the Dutch Eating Behavior Questionnaire (DEBQ) consisting of 33 questions and the Depression, Anxiety and Stress-21 scale (DASS 21) consisting of 21 questions was applied face-to-face to the participants whose consent was obtained. The obtained data were analyzed with the SPSS 25.0 package program. In all analyzes, p<0.05 was considered statistically significant. In our study, it was aimed to determine the relationship between emotional eating, restrictive eating and external eating behaviors in patients applying to primary care and depression, anxiety and stress with different body mass index values. A total of 231 individuals were included in the study; 131 (%56.7) female, 100 (%43.3) male. The mean age was 39.66 ± 12.34 years. It was observed that 55 (23.8%) of the participants were high school graduates and 120 (51.9%) were university/postgraduate graduates. We found significant relationships between emotional eating behavior and gender, body mass index (BMI) increase, depression, anxiety, and stress (p<0.05). We found significant relationships between external eating behavior and low age, individuals' employment status, depression, anxiety, and stress (p<0.05). Restrictive eating behavior was found to be significantly lower in thin individuals compared to normal, overweight, and obese individuals (p<0.05). According to our results, the relationship between age, gender, individual employment status, BMI and depression, anxiety, and stress with eating behaviors could be shown. Patients with emotional, external, and restrictive eating behaviors, psychiatric problems, and weight loss problems should be offered early diet, exercise, and psychiatric counseling, and behavioral therapies should be applied to ensure that they can continue their lifestyle changes. The family physician should monitor the diet and weight of patients with eating behavior disorders during their treatment, evaluate possible medical complications, and coordinate with other specialties to take the necessary precautions. Keywords: Eating behavior, Body Mass Index, Depression, Anxiety, Stress, Primary care