Determining the relationship between dysmenorrhea and emotional eating in young women

Abstract

Aim: The research aimed to evaluate the relationship between dysmenorrhea and emotional eating in young women. Method: The descriptive research was done with 259 female students who were undergraduates. The socio-demographic form, Visual Analog Scale (VAS), and the Salzburg Emotional Eating Scale (SEES) were used for online data collection. In the evaluation of the data; descriptive statistics (number, percentage, mean, standard deviation) and independent groups t test, Anova test and correlation analysis tests were used, and the significance level was accepted as p<0.05. Results: In the current study conducted with 259 young women with an average age of 20.96 (SD: 2.27), the mean total SEES score of those who stated that they had painful menstruation was significantly higher than those who stated that they did not have dysmenorrhea (p<0.05). The mean scores of those with dysmenorrhea were higher in the SEES subscale scores (p<0.05). Even though the sadness, anger, and anxiety subscales had a positive correlation with SEES mean scores (p<0.01), the happiness subscale had a negative correlation (p>0.05). Conclusion: As a result, food consumption decreased as emotional eating behavior during menstruation regardless of dysmenorrhea in young women.