Stress and overweight/obesity among nursing students

Urbanetto, Janete de Souza; Rocha, Pâmela Silva da; Dutra, Rosangela Carvalho; Maciel, Maria Carolina; Bandeira, Andrea Gonçalves; Magnago, Tania Solange Bosi de Souza

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Brasil

Revista Latino-Americana de Enfermagem

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Brasil

Español English

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Sumário

Original Article • Rev Lat Am Enfermagem 27 • 2019 • https://doi.org/10.1590/1518-8345.2966.3177 copy

Stress and overweight/obesity among nursing students

Authorship SCIMAGO INSTITUTIONS RANKINGS

Objective

analyze associations between demographic, academic, health, stress, overweight and obesity characteristics among nursing students.

Method

this is a cross-sectional study with 95 students from a private university in Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil. A demographic, academic and health characterization questionnaire and the Assessment of Stress in Nursing Students (ASNS) scale were applied. Anthropometric measures were taken and descriptive and bivariate analyses were performed.

Results

female students predominated in this study, mean age: 25.6±5.87 years. Weight gain was observed in 52.6% of the students, with the ‘Professional training’ session reporting high (29.5%) and very high (36.8%) levels of stress. None of the stress scale sessions was associated with overweight and obesity.

Conclusion

overweight and obesity were associated with male participants, high blood pressure, weight gain since the beginning of the course, altered waist circumference, no physical activity, eating more in stressful situations, and consumption of unhealthy foods.

Students, Nursing; Nursing; Stress, Psychological; Obesity; Overweight; Life Style

Variables	n	%
Age
Up to 26 years	64	67.4
27 years old or more	31	32.6
Sex
Female	76	80.0
Male	19	20.0
Self-reported skin color (n=94)
White	85	90.4
Black	6	6.4
Brown	3	3.2
Marital status (n=93)
Single	74	79.6
Married/stable union	19	20.4
Has children (n=90)
Yes	23	25.5
No	67	74.4
Physical activity
Yes	17	17.9
No	43	45.3
Sometimes	35	36.8
Body mass index
Good nutrition	45	47.4
Overweight	34	35.8
Obesity I	11	11.6
Obesity II	5	5.2
Blood pressure classification
Normal	29	30.5
Pre-hypertension	42	44.2
Hypertension I	14	14.7
Hypertension II	7	7.4
Hypertension III	3	3.2
Waist circumference (cardiovascular risk - sex)
<80 cm (no risk - female)	38	40.0
<90 cm (no risk - male)	7	7.4
≥80 to <88 cm (increased risk - female)	19	20.0
≥90 to <102 cm (increased risk - male)	10	10.5
≥88 cm (significantly increased risk - female)	19	20.0
≥102 cm (significantly increased risk - female)	2	2.1

Categories of stress	Sessions of the ASNS scale*

	Practical activities	Professional communication	Time management	Environment	Professional training	Theoretical activities

	n (%)	n (%)	n (%)	n (%)	n (%)	n (%)
Low level of stress	31(32.6)	41(43.2)	60(63.2)	58(61.1)	23(24.2)	42(44.2)
Medium level of stress	30(31.6)	23(24.2)	11(11.6)	17(17.9)	9(9.5)	27(28.4)
High level of stress	22(23.2)	17(17.9)	18(18.9)	8(8.4)	28(29.5)	16(16.8)
Very high level of stress	12(12.6)	14(14.7)	6(6.3)	12(12.6)	35(36.8)	10(10.5)

Independent variables	Body mass index*						p

	Good nutrition		Overweight		Obesity

	n	%	n	%	n	%
Age
Up to 26 years	34	53.1	23	35.9	7	10.9	0.066 ^†
27 years old or more	11	35.5	11	35.5	9	29.0	0.066 ^†
Sex
Female	40	52.6	22	28.9	14	18.4	0.032 ^‡
Male	5	26.3	12	63.2	2	10.5	0.032 ^‡
Weight variation (n=90)
Weight variation ≤3.55 kg	32	71.1	9	20.0	4	8.9	<0.001 ^‡
Weight variation ≥3.55 kg	12	26.7	21	46.7	12	26.7	<0.001 ^‡
Waist circumference
No risk	36	80.0	9	20.0	-	-	<0.001 ^†
Increased risk	8	27.6	20	69.0	1	3.7
Significantly increased risk	1	4.8	5	23.8	15	71.4
Physical activity
Sometimes	16	45.7	16	45.7	3	8.6	0.027 ^‡
Yes	7	41.2	9	52.9	1	5.9
No	22	51.2	9	20.9	12	27.9
Blood pressure
Normal	16	55.2	8	27.6	5	17.2	0.042 ^†
Pre-hypertension	24	57.1	13	31.0	5	11.9
Hypertension	5	20.8	13	54.2	6	25.0
Course semester
Up to semester 4	19	51.4	12	32.4	6	16.2	0.616 ^†
Semester 5 to 8	26	44.8	22	37.9	10	17.2	0.616 ^†
Meal replaced with snacks (n=93)
Yes	15	35.7	20	47.6	7	16.7	0.139 ^†
No	29	56.9	13	25.5	9	17.6	0.139 ^†
Reaction in situations of stress or anxiety
Tend to eat more	24	38.1	25	39.7	14	22.2	0.025 ^‡
Tend to eat less	21	65.6	9	28.1	2	6.3	0.025 ^‡
Food intake
Consider consumed food as healthy	20	36.4	24	43.6	11	20.0	0.042 ^†
Do not consider consumed food as healthy	25	62.5	10	25.0	05	12.5	0.042 ^†

ASNS scale sessions ^*	Body mass index ^†						p ^‡

	Good nutrition		Overweight		Obesity

	n	%	n	%	n	%
Practical activities
Low level of stress	14	45.2	11	35.5	6	19.4	0.680
Medium level of stress	17	56.7	9	30.0	4	13.3
High level of stress	10	45.5	7	31.8	5	22.7
Very high level of stress	4	33.3	7	58.3	1	8.3
Professional communication
Low level of stress	22	53.7	10	24.4	9	22.0	0.341
Medium level of stress	9	39.1	12	52.2	2	8.7
High level of stress	7	41.2	6	35.3	4	23.5
Very high level of stress	7	50.0	6	42.9	1	7.1
Time management
Low level of stress	30	50.0	17	28.3	13	21.7	0.378
Medium level of stress	5	45.5	6	54.5	0	0
High level of stress	7	38.9	9	50.0	2	11.1
Very high level of stress	3	50.0	2	33.3	1	16.7
Environment
Low level of stress	26	44.8	24	41.4	8	13.8	0.674
Medium level of stress	8	47.1	6	35.3	3	17.6
High level of stress	5	62.5	1	12.5	2	25.0
Very high level of stress	6	50.0	3	25.0	3	25.0
Professional training
Low level of stress	11	47.88	8	34.8	4	17.4	0.659
Medium level of stress	6	66.7	2	22.2	1	11.1
High level of stress	13	46.4	8	28.6	7	25.0
Very high level of stress	15	42.9	16	45.7	4	11.4
Theoretical activities
Low level of stress	22	52.4	14	33.3	6	14.3	0.465
Medium level of stress	14	51.9	7	25.9	6	22.2
High level of stress	7	43.8	7	43.8	2	12.5
Very high level of stress	2	20.0	6	60.0	2	20.0

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[1] Corresponding author: Janete de Souza Urbanetto E-mail: jurbanetto@pucrs.br https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4697-1641