Survey study, 2023
Does stress cause women with PMDD to eat emotionally?
In women with PMDD, stress mediated the link between PMS symptoms and emotional eating. Stress plays a key role in whether women eat emotionally during their cycle.
What they did
Cross-sectional study of 409 women aged 20-39 with healthy weight (BMI 18.5-29.9). Researchers divided them into PMDD and non-PMDD groups based on symptom severity and measured emotional eating, PMS severity, and perceived stress.
What they found
Women with PMDD had significantly higher emotional eating, PMS symptoms, and negative perceived stress than those without PMDD. In the non-PMDD group, stress alone predicted emotional eating. In the PMDD group, PMS symptoms affected emotional eating, with stress partly or completely explaining this relationship.
What it means for you
If you have PMDD and eat emotionally during your cycle, reducing stress may help control this behavior. The study measured everything at one time point, so we cannot know whether stress causes emotional eating or emotional eating causes stress.
409
women in study
20-39
age range
18.5-29.9
BMI range kg/m2
About the study
- Original title
- Mediating effect of negative perceived stress on the relationship between premenstrual syndrome and emotional eating
- Authors
- Um Y, Lee J
- Journal
- Nutrition research and practice
- Year
- 2023
- Study design
- Survey study
- Participants
- 409
- Open access
- Yes
- Read the paper
- doi.org/10.4162/nrp.2023.17.2.330
Topics
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