Abstract:

Purpose: This study aims to measure the consciousness of eating in university students and to evaluate the impact of consciousness of eating on the socio-demographic characteristics of students, eating behaviors, existing eating habits and changes in their emotional conditions. Individual and Method: The research is done with the students of the Faculty of Health Sciences of the University of Adnan Menderes and is a cutting-edge study. The data was collected between November 2019 and January 2020. In the collection of data, the survey form was used by researchers to question the Measure of Eating Awareness (YFÖ), the Beck Depression Measure (BDÖ) and the socio-demographic characteristics of the participants and their eating habits. Results: The study found a statistically significant difference between the body mass index (BMI), the place where they live, the presence of chronic disease, the meal break, the meal break and the meal break and the average EPA score (p<0.05). The low-dimensional awareness score of the YFÖ has found a significant difference between the average score and gender, and the male awareness score has been found higher than the female awareness score (p<0.05). There is a meaningful difference between the students’ BCI values and eating without thinking, emotional eating and enterferans (p<0.05). While obese individuals have lower eating and enterferance ratings without thinking, the emotional eating behavior has been found to be less in weak individuals (p<0.05). Participants with emotional eating behavior were found to have higher scores of depression (p<0.01). As individuals eat without thinking behaviors increase, the levels of depression increase (p<0.01). This study shows that eating consciousness and its subdimensions are associated with the socio-demographic characteristics of individuals, their eating habits and their levels of depression. Strengthening the consciousness of eating or the related subdimensions can have a positive impact on behaviors such as body weight control, emotional state, emotional eating, eating without thinking. In this regard, it is recommended that the study on the consciousness of eating, in the future, will be done with a more comprehensive and gender-balanced population.

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