Association of Perceived Stress and Disordered Eating Patterns with Overweight Among Medical Students in Rewa, Madhya Pradesh

Abstract

Background: There is significant stress, both academic and lifestyle-related, faced by students in the medical field, which can impact their eating habits and their weight. There is a lack of research on the correlation between stress, disordered eating, and being overweight in medical students in Madhya Pradesh. This research was performed to investigate these aspects and their relationships in medical students from Rewa.Methods: The research done was cross-sectional in nature and included 350 MBBS students and interns from Shyam Shah Medical College. The research was conducted between August and November 2025. The sampling was done convenience-wise, and the Perceived Stress Scale (PSS-10) which involved 10 questions was used to measure how stressed the participants feel. This was then followed by the Eating Attitudes Test (EAT-26), and the measurement of the height and weight of the respondents to determine their BMI. The analysis for the study was done using descriptive statistics, Chi-square test statistics as well as Pearson’s correlation. Statistical significance was set at p<0.05.Results: Out of the 350 individuals surveyed, 54.3% believed they faced moderate stress and 25.7% experienced considerable high stress. The commonest form of eating disorder was emotional eating, being reported by 31.4% of the respondents. The remaining eating disorders were identified as follows: omission of the meal (27.1%) and binge eating (21.4%). 20.0% of people exhibited normal eating patterns. As for the ratio of participants and obesity rates, 51.4% were reported as having normal mass index, 24.3% were overweight, 12.9% were classified as obese and 11.4% were underweight. There is a strong positive correlation between the scores of PSS-10 and EAT-26, (r=0.42, p<0.01).Conclusion: The results show a high level of perceived stress and disordered eating among medical students, with an increase in the level of stress being linked to inappropriate eating behaviour. The presence of combination of both behavioural and psychosocial problems with overweight and obesity indicates the necessity of the implementation of the integrated early interventions aimed at student health in medical education.