Correlation of BMI With Educational Stress By Psychometric Analysis Via Perceived Stressed Scale In Non-State University Students

Abstract

Overweight and Educational Stress had become two dominant problems in young population. We evaluated the effects of Educational Stress on BMI among non-state university students. Gender deference on stress and BMI, correlation between BMI and stress were determined. A google form was used for collection of data from 384 participants and stress was analyzed by Perceived Stress Scale (PSS). Majority of our study group 55.2% were female, and 44.8% were male. Mean BMI was 23.54kgm-2 (Overweight) and it was 24.70kgm-2 (overweight) in male and 22.60kgm-2 (normal) in female. As per the PSS, 52% of male participant showed moderate stress and 48% male showed high perceived stress. In female population, 50% showed moderate stress, 47% showed high perceived stress and 3% showed minimum stress. Results show that >90% of students suffer from moderate to high perceived stress and it was positively correlated with BMI (p=0.01, r=0.239) seen in both genders. Educational stress can increase the students BMI and this finding is important for an institutional intervention for better outcome of the student performances. We recommend considering the program interventions to minimize the educational stress and to reduce the high BMI related non communicable diseases in future.