Estrés académico y su asociación con el consumo de energía y ciertos nutrimentos

Introduction: The stress which arises as a response to the demands in the academic contexts has been related to alterations on the food consumption patterns and subsequent increase in the risk of developing overweight. Objective: To analyze the association between the level of academic stress and the consumption of high energy foods among graduate students of a public university. Methodology: This is an analytical, observational, and transversal study with a convenient sample of students (n = 15). Inclusion criteria were male or female, 20 to 50 years old, and enrolled in a Masters program. Pregnant women were excluded. The level of academic stress was estimated with the SISCO inventory. Feeding patterns were assessed every 24 hours. Mann-Whitney and Spearman tests were calculated. Results: 73.3% of the students showed a moderate level of academic stress. No differences between the academic stress level and nutrition patterns were found. However, there was a direct relationship between the level of stress and the consumption of vitamin B6 (r = 0.467, p = 0.041) and pantothenic acid (r = 0.517, p = 0.029). Discussion and conclusions: There is controversy regarding the relationship between alimentary habits and academic stress. In this study, no association between academic stress and high energy foods consumption was found; however, a link between this kind of stress and the consumption of vitamin B6 and pantothenic acid was. Further research is suggested on the topic of possible relationships between health professionals under academic stress and their high energy consumption habits. Introdução: O estresse acadêmico gerado em resposta às demandas do campo educacional tem sido relacionado a alterações na alimentação e ao aumento do risco de excesso de peso. Objetivo: Analisar a associação entre nível de estresse acadêmico, consumo de energia e determinados nutrientes em mestrandos de uma universidade pública. Metodologia: Estudo analítico, observacional e transversal. A amostra da população estudantil foi realizada por conveniência (n= 15). Os critérios de inclusão foram homem ou mulher, ter entre 20 e 50 anos e cursar mestrado. Foram excluídas gestantes. O nível de estresse acadêmico foi determinado com o inventário SISCO e a avaliação nutricional com recordatório de 24 horas. As diferenças foram avaliadas pelo teste U de Mann-Whitney e as correlações pelo teste de Spearman. Resultados: 73,3% dos estudantes apresentaram nível moderado de estresse acadêmico