The role of psychological eating styles in obesity among turkish adolescents: A cross-sectional study

Objective: to determine the relationship between eating behaviours and adiposity indicators including body mass index,waist-hip ratio and waist-height ratio in adolescents. methods: this descriptive,cross-sectional study was conducted at kirklareli university health college,kirklareli,turkey,from april to june 2014,and comprised students of the 2013-14 academic year. height and weight were measured and students' body mass indexes were calculated. waist and hip circumferences were measured. eating behaviours were evaluated using the three-factor eating questionnaire. spss 15 was used for data analysis. results: of the520,353(67.9%) were female and 167(32.1%) were male. cognitive restraint and emotional eating scores of females were significantly higher than those of males (p<0.05). cognitive restraint scores of participants who were thin according to the body mass index were significantly lower than participants who were at normal weight and who were overweight (p<0.05). body mass index was significantly and positively correlated to cognitive restraint and emotional eating subscales,whereas there was a significant negative correlation between emotional eating and waist-height ratio (p<0.05 each). cognitive restraint regarding food intake and tendency to emotional eating increased the risk of obesity (p<0.05). conclusion: being inclined to emotional eating and limiting food intake cognitively increased the risk of obesity. © 2017,pakistan medical association. all rights reserved.