Relationship between emotional eating and frequency of unhealthy food consumption among Undergraduates in Public Universities in Enugu State

Abstract

Background: Increased consumption of unhealthy foods among adolescents and young adults will have an impact on nutrition and  health.

Objective: This research determined the relationship between emotional eating and frequency of unhealthy food consumption among  undergraduates in public universities in Enugu state.

Methods: A descriptive cross-sectional study design was employed. The population comprised of 86,000 undergraduate students in the  two public universities in Enugu State. Purposive sampling was used to select a sample size of 763 respondents. Questionnaire was the  instrument for data collection. Data collected were entered into Statistical Product for Service Solution (IBM-SPSS), version 23.0 for  analysis. Frequencies, percentages, means, standard deviation and chi square were used for data analysis.

Results: Findings showed that a greater proportion (68.8%) of the students skipped meals 2-3times/week, mostly due to poor finance  (31.1%), and lack of time (30.9%). More than a third (46.5%) of them ate fast foods 1-3times per week. Findings on the types of emotional eating showed that a greater proportion (31.2%) of the respondents were depressed eaters, 21.8% were bored eaters and 21.1% were lonely eaters. Result showed that up to 63.6% of the respondents had high frequency of consuming unhealthy foods, while 22.4% had low frequency of consuming unhealthy foods. Emotional eating was associated with frequency of unhealthy food consumption among the  students.

Conclusion: Nutrition education on the importance of adequate diets should be given to the students by school authorities in  collaboration with nutrition departments of the schools in order to promote their practice of healthy food choices.