Background: Young adults are prone to stress due to various life events. Managing these stressors can be difficult for them, making them cope with these through behavioral changes, the most common being unhealthy and irregular eating habits with a lack of physical activities.
Aims and Objectives: This study aims to find the correlation between body mass index (BMI) and perceived stress among young adults. Any gender differences are also evaluated.
Materials and Methods: Out of the 300 1st year medical students enrolled, height and weight for BMI and perceived stress scale-10 (PSS-10) scores were obtained for 228 participants as a one-time reading for every participant. Then, the relationship between these values of BMI and PSS was evaluated.
Results: Out of the analyzed participants, 46.1% were in the normal BMI category, with 15.8% being underweight. Out of the 38.1% of participants with an above-normal BMI, 2/3rd were found to be obese. Moderate stress was seen in 75% of participants. We found a weak negative correlation between BMI and stress (significant at 0.05).
Conclusion: The majority of the youth experience stress at moderate level, which is concerning for society as they indulge in stress eating to cope but end up being obese and more prone to metabolic diseases, thus entering a vicious cycle of obesity, disease, and stress. Hence, activities such as exercise, meditation, and others must be included in daily life to balance physical and mental health.
Key words: Body Mass Index; Perceived Stress Scale; Youth; Obesity; Unhealthy Lifestyle
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