(P13-053-24) Perceived Stress, Body Image Satisfaction and Dysfunctional Eating Behavior Among Adolescents in the Metropolitan Region of São Paulo, Brazil: Prospective Cohort Study

Objectives: To analyze the association and correlation between perceived stress, body image satisfaction, and dysfunctional eating behavior in adolescents.

Methods: This was a prospective cohort of adolescents from São Paulo, Brazil, with data from 2022 and 2023. Initially, data on sex and age groups were collected. The Perceived Stress Scale, Silhouette Scale, Food Consumption Markers, and Three Factor Eating Questionnaire-R21 were used to assess perceived stress, body satisfaction, food consumption, and dysfunctional eating behaviors (cognitive restriction, emotional eating, and uncontrolled eating). McNemar’s test and Spearman's correlation coefficient were used to estimate the associations and correlations, respectively. A Multiple Regression Model was used to check the influence of the variables on the outcome "perception of stress.” A Simple Linear Regression Model was used to analyze temporal trends in the prevalence of food consumption. A 5% significance level and 95% confidence interval were used for all the statistical tests.

Results: In a cohort of 180 adolescents, 73% were female and 51% were 16 years old. In the sample, 44% had a high perception of stress, and 56% were dissatisfied due to being overweight. There was a correlation between uncontrolled eating and emotional eating (rho = 0.577; p< 0.001), emotional eating and perceived stress (rho = 0.403; p< 0.001), and cognitive restriction and body image satisfaction (rho = 0.445, p< 0.001). There was an increase of 3.44 (p= 0.001) in the perception of stress score in relation to overweight dissatisfaction, and 4.41 (p < 0.001) in relation to women. There was a significant association between body image satisfaction, emotional eating, cognitive restriction and perceived stress from 2022 to 2023 (p= 0.039, p=0.001, and p < 0.001, respectively). There was a downward trend in the consumption of unhealthy foods among adolescents with high and low perceived stress (p= 0.044 and p= 0.022, respectively).

Conclusions: An association and correlation between perceived stress, increased body image dissatisfaction and dysfunctional eating behavior was observed. Thus, it is possible to identify the need to implement intervention strategies in different dimensions of eating behavior in view of the emotional aspects that permeate this period of life.

Funding Sources: None