Investigation of the relationship between stress and nutrition in university students during the CoVID-19 outbreak

During the Covid-19 outbreak, the health status of many people was adversely affected. The research we have done comprises the people in 18-35 age group living in Turkey and concerns current phase that especially affects eating habits, and aims to examine the relationship between nutrition and stress among university students. The descriptive study was conducted on 386 (101 male, 285 female) university students between November 2020 and March 2021. Sociodemographic Information Form, Perceived Stress Scale and Turkish Emotional Eating Scale were used in the study. Food consumption frequencies were also examined to look at the nutrition of university students before and after Covid-19. It was observed that the stress levels of single students were higher than married students, those in the 18-24 age group compared to the 25-35 age group, and those studying at a foundation university (p<0.05). A significant difference was found between the Emotional Eating Scale and its sub-dimensions between BMI groups. With the regression analysis, it was concluded that there is a significant relationship, emotional eating behaviors also increase (p<0.01). As a result; we can say that university stundets are stressed before and during the pandemic and their emotional eating behaviors are affected accordingly. In particular, it has been observed that women show more emotional eating than men (p<0.05). These students, who are at a certain level of education, need to be informed more about healthy eating and stress management.