A research on mindful eating of university students

Present study, it was aimed to examine the eating attitude and mindful eating of the students and to examine the change of mindful eating of the students besides informing with nutrition lesson. The study was executed by 318 healthy students aged 18-45 years, randomly selected among students studying at Uskudar University between September 2015 and May 2016. In addition to a survey form containing personal and health information of the students, the Eating Attitudes Test (EAT-40) was conducted by Savasir and Erol, and the Mindful Eating Questionnare-30 (MEQ-30) scale adapted Turkish Kose et al. The mean age of the participants' was 21.56 ± 3.82 year. The mean score of the participants' EAT-40 score was found to be 24.22 ± 13.98 and the mean score of the MEQ-30 was 98.11 ± 13.81. As the EAT-40 scores decreased, MEQ-30 scores increased, but this relationship was not statistically significant (p> 0.05) Eating disorder risk can be determined by 30 cut-off point in the EAT-40. It has been shown that 28.9% of students have an eating disorder risk. There was no statistically significant difference between men's (23.33 ± 15.60) and women's (24.48 ± 13.50) mean EAT-40 scores (p> 0.05). Overweight-obese group was found to be having higher YTT-40 scores than the other BMI classes (p <0.05). While the students' body weight and BMI increased, the risk of eating disorder increased (r = 0.112, p <0.05 and r = 0.139, p <0.05), and mindful eating decreased (p> 0.05). A significant relationship was found between weight, BMI and MEQ-30 subscales (r =-0.252, p <0.01 and r =-0.208, p <0.01). As food choices evaluated, 33.3% of students that is vegan, 26.4% of the students that have no food choice and 24.1% of the students that don't eat red meat were at risk of eating disorder (p <0.05). The relationship between sleep duration and defecation problems were found to be significant (p <0.05). Females' defecation problems were found to be higher than males (p <0.05). There was no statistically significant difference between the EAT-40 score groups according to walking status of the participants (p> 0.05). There was a statistically significant relationship between walking status and emotional eating that is one of MEQ-30 subscales (r = -0.159, p <0.01). Defecation problems and MEQ-30 score have positive correlation (r = 0.173, p <0.01) and negative correlation with EAT-40 score (r = -0.136, p <0.05). There was a negative correlation between compliance with defecation problems and disinhibition, emotional eating and ınterference sub-scales (p <0.05), while the mean of MEQ-30 score's significancy was higher than EAT-40 scores (p = 0.002). In this study, 31.1% of students who participated in this study took nutrition course. As having nutrition course, EAT-40 score decreased and the score of MEQ-30 increased (p> 0.05). There was no statistically significant relationship between the level of taking the course and EAT-40, MEQ-30 or the sub-scales of MEQ (p> 0.05). As a result of this study, nutrition lessons influence students' eating attitudes and mindful eating positively. In addition, gaining mindfulness of eating will be helping manage to weight status. Key words: Nutrition, emotional eating, binge eating, obesity, mindfulness This research project has been approved by Uskudar University Ethics Committee of Non-Interventional Studies Council.