Investigation of factors associated with emotional eating and emotional appetite of nurses

This descriptive and correlational study was conducted in order to determine the factors affecting emotional eating and emotional appetite among midwives, nurses and medical staff who are employed in nursing positions. A total of 352 nurses who were actively working between July and October 2021 participated in this study. The data were collected electronically by means of 'Descriptive Characteristic Form' developed by the researchers using the literature, the 'Emotional Appetite Questionnaire (EMAQ)', the 'Emotional Eating Scale (EES)' and the 'Trait Anxiety Inventory (TAI)'. Statistical analysis of the data were performed via JASP package program. In addition to the descriptive statistics as frequency, percentage, arithmetic mean, standard deviation, and median, Mann Whitney U (MWU), Kruskal Wallis (KW) and Pearson correlation analysis and stepwise multiple linear regression analysis were also used for comparisons. Male gender (β=-0.166; t=- 3.167; p=<0.001) and increase in age (β=-0.141; t=- 2.485; p=<0.001) were determined as independent variables decreasing the total score of EES. EMAQ total score (β=0.443; t=8.305; p=<0.001) and BMI (β=0.204; t=3.530; p=<0.001) were determined as independent variables that increased the EES total score. In accordance with the results, emotional eating and emotional appetite can be said to vary according to some sociodemographic characteristics of the individuals and that emotional appetite and emotional eating among nurses exist. Also, EES total score is positively and weakly related to BMI. It means that as emotional eating increases, BMI also displays an increase. EMAQ total score also has a very weak positive correlation with BMI. Considering the Trait Anxiety Inventory (TAI) scores, the average score of females was found to be 48.40 ± 2.67, and average score was 47.72 ± 2.66 among males. According to these findings, it can be derived that nurses have high anxiety levels. No significant correlation was found between TAI and BMI, age, EMAQ positive, EMAQ negative, total EMAQ and EES scores (p>0.05). According to these results, despite the fact that the anxiety levels of the nurses are high, it is seen that their anxiety level has no effect on their emotional appetite and emotional eating.