ALIMENTAÇÃO EMOCIONAL E INDICADORES DE ADIPOSIDADE: UM ESTUDO COM AGENTES COMUNITÁRIOS DE SAÚDE DE VITÓRIA-ES

Abstract

Emotional eating (EE) has been shown to be associated with weight gain and adiposity indicators in population studies. The objective of this work was to evaluate the relationship between EE and adiposity indicators in Community Health Workers (CHWs) in the city of Vitória - ES. This is a cross-sectional study with the collection of biochemical, hemodynamic, anthropometric, sociodemographic, health and life habits data. For assessment of EE, the Dutch Eating Behavior Questionnaire was used. The adiposity was estimated from anthropometric measurements, followed by the construction of indices, namely: Body Mass Index (BMI), Waist Circumference (WC), Body Fat Percentage (BFP), Waist-to-Height Ratio (WHtR), Waist-to-Hip Ratio (WHR) and Conicity index (C index). EE was analyzed as a quantitative (continuous) and qualitative variable, from the division into quartiles, resulting subsequently in three categories (low, moderate and high). The association between EE and adiposity indicators was analyzed using the chi-square and Fisher's exact tests, in addition to group comparison and correlation tests. Multivariate linear regression models were used to verify the association between exposure (EE categories) and outcomes (adiposity indicators). To analyze the reliability of the EE subscale, the Chronbach's alpha coefficient (α = 0.94) was obtained. The level of significance adopted was 5%. Data from 222 CHWs were analyzed, with a mean age of 46.8 ± 9.3 years, the majority of whom were women (93.2%). Of the total, 49.6% declared themselves to be brown, 81.9% have completed high school and 70.7% do not practice physical activity. In the final model, statistically significant associations were found between EE and BMI (β = 1.99, 95% CI: 0.02 - 3.96, p = 0.047) and WC (β = 6.98, 95% CI: 0.99 - 12.9, p = 0.023). There was no association between EE and WHtR (p = 0.051), WHR (p = 0.537) and C index (p = 0.177), as well as between EE and BFP, in which the association was not maintained after adjustments for confounding variables (p = 0.156). It is concluded that there is an association between EE and two adiposity indicators evaluated (BMI and WC) in the studied sample.