Abstract
Background
Stress and anxiety levels are elevated among university and college students. Although
high stress levels can lead to an increase in adiposity, it is not clear whether stress
and anxiety experienced when in university or college have an influence on students’
weight.
Objective
The aim of this systemic review was to investigate whether stress and anxiety levels
encountered during university and college enrollment were associated with higher adiposity
or weight changes among students.
Method
A search strategy was used to identify peer-reviewed studies published between 1985
and March 2017 using the following databases: Medline using Ovid; PubMed, CINAHL using
EBSCO, Embase using Ovid, PSYCHINFO, and Open Access Theses and Dissertation. Two
reviewers independently assessed the title, abstract, and then the full article of
the studies that met the inclusion criteria. Data were extracted and quality assessment
was conducted for the included studies.
Results
Twenty-five observational studies were identified in this review (23 cross-sectional
and two longitudinal); 11 found that there was no association between stress and body
mass index or weight change. In addition, five studies did not find a significant
association between anxiety and body mass index. A few studies revealed stress and
anxiety might be associated with higher or lower weight status, thus there is a possibility
that stress can increase or decrease weight, demonstrating that a bidirectional influence
on body mass index may exist.
Conclusions
The current data in this review are inadequate to draw firm conclusions about the
role of stress on weight change in university and college students. The inconsistency
of results in the literature reviewed for this article suggest that a focus on longitudinal
studies with adequate sample size would better evaluate the relationship between stress
or anxiety and its influence on weight status or weight change among college and university
students.
Keywords
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Biography
S. A. Haidar is a PhD candidate, Maastricht University, Maastricht, the Netherlands, and dietetic internship coordinator, Lebanese International University, Beirut, Lebanon.
Biography
N. K. de Vries is a professor of health promotion at CAPHRI, Maastricht University, Maastricht, the Netherlands.
Biography
M. Karavetian is an assistant professor, Zayed University, Academic City, Dubai, United Arab Emirates.
Biography
R. El-Rassi is a clinical research institute administrator, American University of Beirut Medical Center, Beirut, Lebanon.
Article info
Publication history
Published online: January 30, 2018
Accepted:
October 16,
2017
Received:
December 29,
2016
Footnotes
STATEMENT OF POTENTIAL CONFLICT OF INTEREST No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.
FUNDING/SUPPORT Supported by a grant received from Zayed University, Academic City, Dubai, United Arab Emirates.
Identification
Copyright
© 2018 by the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics.
