Association Between Body Mass Index with Different Aspects of Lifestyle in Medical Sciences Students: A Cross-Sectional Study

Abstract

The primary focus of this study was to investigate the prevalence of obesity and the association between Body Mass Index with different aspects of lifestyle. This crosssectional study was carried with 380 participants. Data were collected using demographic characteristics, Eating Behavior, Physical Activity and Perceived Stress Questionnaires. The prevalence of obesity and overweight among students was 3.2% and 25.3%, respectively. There was a positive and significant statistical association between emotional eating (r=0.542), extrinsic eating (r=0.488) and perceived stress (r=0.489) with Body Mass Index , also significant and inverse association was obtained between emotional eating(r=0.488) and total physical activity score (r=-0.394) with Body Mass Index . Factors such as sex, total physical activity score and leisure time activity, External eating behaviors, Emotional eating, Restricted eating and Perceived stress had a significant role in explaining Body Mass Index changes. There is a need to develop interventions to improve the dietary behaviors, management stress and access to sports facilities by health-promoting activities.