Abstract:

Aim: This study was conducted to evaluate the effect of emotional eating behavior on nutritional status in adolescents. Method: The study was carried out with the voluntary participation of 328 students, 52 males and 276 females, studying at the Faculty of Health Sciences of Ondokuz Mayıs University. Within the scope of the study, demographic characteristics of individuals, health information, anthropometric measurements, consumption of caffeinated foods and beverages were questioned through a questionnaire and Body Mass Index (BMI) of all individuals was calculated. SPSS 24.0 program was used to analyze the study data. Results: 15.9% of the participants were male and 84.1% were female. The mean age of the students is 20.9±2.59 years. The mean body weight, height and BMI of the students were 63.9±11.02 kg, 165.3±7.56 cm and 23.4±4.12 kg/m2, respectively. It was found that the rate of caffeine consumption among students was 87.8% and the most frequently consumed source of caffeine was tea (93.4%). The daily consumption rates of Turkish coffee and black tea were determined as 21.6% and 53.4%, respectively. It has been observed that tea is mostly preferred at breakfast, coke is preferred at dinner, and coffee, chocolate and energy drinks are preferred most frequently in snacks. 46% of the students reported that they consumed caffeine because it had an effect on staying awake and 43.9% on focusing on the work. Conclusions and Suggestions: It is necessary to determine the consumption of caffeinated food and beverages of university students and to raise awareness of the problems they may encounter if they consume these foods in large amounts.

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