Evaluation of relationship between psychological resilience, distress and adherence to mediterranean diet among adults admitted to psychological counselling center

The objective of this study is to evaluate the relationship of psychological resilience and distress, with emotional eating and with an accepted optimal nutrition pattern, Mediterranean diet. The study is held in a total of 125 adults (36 male, 28.8%; 89 female, 71.2%), aged 18-65 ( ±S: 33.9±12.5) years, who were admitted to Gaziantep Olea Psychological Counselling Center. General characteristics, anthropometric measurements, physical activity status and nutritional habits of the individuals included in the study were determined face-to-face with a questionnaire. The Brief Resilience Scale (BRS), the Psychological Distress Scale (K10-PDS), the Dutch Eating Behavior Questionnaire (DEBQ) to determine the emotional eating status, and the Mediterranean Diet Adherence Scale (PREDIMED) to assess adherence to the Mediterranean diet were applied to the individuals. According to body mass index (BMI) classification of WHO, of the subjects 2,4% was thin, 44,8% was normal, 29,6% was overweight and 23.2% was obese. A total of 82.4% of the subjects reported that their psychological status has an effect on their nutritional status. Mean (±SD) score of BRS was 18,1±5,27, K10-PDS was 24,8±8,26. Adherence to Mediterranean diet (PREDIMED) mean score was 7,6±1,6 and diet needs improvement. DEBQ mean of three factors were found as 2,6±1,0 for restrained eating, 2,1±1,1 for emotional eating and 3,1±0,9 for external eating. Increase in psychological distress was found to linked to increase in emotional and external eating. It was determined that the psychological resilience of male individuals was higher than that of female individuals, and their psychological distress was lower than that of female individuals, and it was found to be statistically significant (p=0.004, p=0.001, respectively). Individuals with regular bedtimes had higher BRS scores and lower K10-PDS scores than those whose sleep schedule was not regular, and this difference was statistically significant (p=0.001, p<0.05). The relationship between psychological distress and DEBQ subscales was examined. The increase in the level of psychological distress also increased the emotional eating and external eating scores and were found to be statistically significant (p=0.002, p=0.004, respectively). There was no significant correlation between PREDIMED and BRS, K10-PDS and DEBQ subscales (p>0.05). A negative, moderately strong and significant relationship was found between BRS and K10-PDS (p=0.001, r=-0.570). High levels of resilience were associated with low levels of psychological distress. Psychological conditions of individuals can affect their eating habits. Individuals should be followed with a multidisciplinary approach, eating awareness should be created and regular nutrition education should be given in order to prevent the formation of wrong eating habits. In addition, the importance of regular physical activity for health should be emphasized.