Determining eating attitudes of medical students and evaluating the relation between anxiety, social adjustment, body mass index (bmi) and other factors with eating attitudes

Introduction and Aim: Abnormal changes in eating attitudes and behaviors of society are increasing day by day. Changes that occur in eating habits gradually become eating disorders. University students constitute a high risk group in eating disorders. In this study, it is aimed to determine the eating attitudes of first grade students of Ege University Faculty of Medicine and to evaluate the relationship between anxiety, social adjustment, body mass index and other factors (sociodemographic, socioeconomic, lifestyle, nutritional characteristics). Methods: This is a cross-sectional study. The study population of the research is 390 students enrolled in Ege University in the first semester of the Faculty of Medicine in 2017-2018 education year. It is targeted to reach the all population. The dependent variable is the eating attitute. The independent variables are sociodemographic and economic variables, life style variables, nutritional characteristics, anxiety level, body mass index and social adjustment level. The data were collected in June 2017 with a questionnaire developed by the researcher. The form was completed by the students under the supervision of the researcher and weight and height measurements were made in order to calculate the body mass index. Data analysis was performed using SPSS 18.0. Descriptive and analytical statistics are presented in tables. The percentages of categorical variables, the mean of continuous variables, and standard deviations are given. Chi-square test was used for univariate analyzes and logistic regression analysis for multivariate analyzes. Results: 372 students were questioned in the study. The response rate was 95%. 42.7% of the students are female, 57.3% are male. The average age is 18.9 ± 0.8. 6.2% of the students who participated in the survey received scores over 30 points from the eating attitude test which means that they have abnormal eating attitude. Eating attitude test score averages are 10.59 ± 8.01. 15.9% of the students are on a diet. The mean BMI was 23.6 ± 3.7. The average score of anxiety points was 11.4 ± 8.1, and the average score of social adjustment was 80.8 ± 9.8. Low and moderate income, dieting, BMI outside of normal range, severe anxiety and low level of social adjustment increase the risk of eating disorders. (OR: 4.0, 95% CI: 1.3-12.2, OR: 5.0 95% Cl: 1.5-16, OR: 3.1, 95% Cl: 1.0-9.4, OR: 18.6, 95%: Cl: 5.9-58.6, OR: 4.4, 95% Cl: 1.3-14.5 respectively). Conclusion: 6.2% of the medical students have abnormal eating attitudes. The risk of eating disorder is high in middle and low income perception groups, in dieters, in those who are out of normal range of BMI, in those with severe anxiety, and in those with low social cohesion. Regulations are needed to improve eating attitudes in medical school students. Key words: Eating attitude test, anxiety, social adjustment, BMI