Comportamentos alimentares desordenados e fatores associados em estudantes universitários

Abstract

University students may be a vulnerable group to adopt unhealthy behaviors, including changes in eating behavior. Assessment of factors associated with the prevalence of disordered eating behaviors in university students’ population may facilitate the early identification of their predictors, thus allowing fast interventions. Aim: To analyze the prevalence of disordered eating behaviors and associated factors in university students. Methods: A cross-sectional study was carried out in university students that getting a public university in Cuiabá-MT, followed by the "Longitudinal Study on the Lifestyle of University Students" (ELESEU). The data were collected in the first semesters of 2015, 2016 and 2017, through a self-administered questionnaire containing questions regarding demographic and socioeconomic characteristics, of lifestyle, self-perception of body image, perceived stress, depressive symptoms and questions regarding (binge eating, purging, and food restriction), which as used to evaluate the weight condition. Weight and height were measured and the data used to estimate the body mass index, which as classified according to gender and agegroup. The hierarchical logistic regression was used to investigate association between actors investigated and disordered eating behaviors, using 5% as significance level. The research project was approved by the Research Ethics Committee of the Júlio Muller University Hospital of Federal University of Mato Grosso. Results: A total of 1608 university students were evaluated, 50.7% male, with predominant age between 16 and 19 group (77.9%). Prevalence of disordered eating behaviors was 4.4% for binge eating, 2.5% for purging and 9.1% for food restriction. In the final model obtained by hierarchical logistic regression the factors that remained associated with binge eating were: female gender (OR = 3.76, 95% CI: 2.09, 6.76), alcohol consumption (OR = 1 (OR = 3.34, 95% CI: 1.17, 9.48), overweight (OR = 2.87, 95% CI: 95% CI: 1.03, 2.94), body image dissatisfaction (OR = 2.54, 95% CI: 1.28, 5.05) and presence of depressive symptoms (OR = 1.94, 95% CI: 1.10 , 3.43). The variables associated with purging were: female sex (OR = 7.63, 95% CI: 2.97, 19.60), alcohol consumption (OR = 2.60, 95% CI: 1.22, 5.52) (OR = 2.89, 95% CI: 1.49, 5.61) and presence of depressive symptoms (OR = 2.56, 95% CI: 1.29, 5.10). The factors that remained associated with food restriction were: female gender (OR = 3.01, 95% CI: 2.06, 4.39), smoking (OR = 2.75, 95% CI: 1.81, 4.18 ), body image dissatisfaction (OR = 2.64, 95% CI: 1.42, 4.94), overweight (OR = 2.77, 95% CI: 1.90, 4.04), perceived stress (OR = 1.54, 95% CI: 0.99, 2.40) and presence of depressive symptoms (OR = 1.84, 95% CI: 1.22, 2.78). Conclusions: Factors associated with disordered eating behaviors evaluated in this study emphasize that it is necessary to develop interventions to implement a synergy between individual level changes in lifestyle behaviors. It is also necessary to implement actions at population-level considering community and environmental norms around the body image and healthy lifestyles.