Stress and overweight/obesity among nursing students

OBJECTIVE: analyze associations between demographic, academic, health, stress, overweight and obesity characteristics among nursing students. METHOD: this is a cross-sectional study with 95 students from a private university in Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil. A demographic, academic and health characterization questionnaire and the Assessment of Stress in Nursing Students (ASNS) scale were applied. Anthropometric measures were taken and descriptive and bivariate analyses were performed. RESULTS: female students predominated in this study, mean age: 25.6±5.87 years. Weight gain was observed in 52.6% of the students, with the ‘Professional training’ session reporting high (29.5%) and very high (36.8%) levels of stress. None of the stress scale sessions was associated with overweight and obesity. CONCLUSION: overweight and obesity were associated with male participants, high blood pressure, weight gain since the beginning of the course, altered waist circumference, no physical activity, eating more in stressful situations, and consumption of unhealthy foods.