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The interaction effect of anxiety and mood on energy intake and blood pressure in healthy women university students

Leila Jampour (Student Research Committee, Ahvaz Jundishapur University of Medical Sciences, Ahvaz, Iran)
Hadise Hashemi (Student Research Committee, Ahvaz Jundishapur University of Medical Sciences, Ahvaz, Iran)
Forouzan Behrouzian (Department of Psychiatry, Golestan Hospital, Ahvaz Jundishapur University of Medical Sciences, Ahvaz, Iran)
Sima Jafarirad (Nutrition and Metabolic Diseases Research Center, Ahvaz Jundishapur University of Medical Sciences, Ahvaz, Iran)

Nutrition & Food Science

ISSN: 0034-6659

Article publication date: 6 August 2019

Issue publication date: 5 March 2020

269

Abstract

Purpose

In spite of the importance of food intake in weight management and preventing chronic diseases, it remains difficult to predict how anxious people change their eating behaviour in exposure to bad or good moods. The purpose of the study was to investigate the interaction effect of anxiety and different moods on food intake and blood pressure in healthy women students.

Design/methodology/approach

A total of 82 women university students (18-30 years) participated in the study. Subjects completed a valid anxiety questionnaire at baseline to measure trait and state anxiety scores, then they were randomly divided into two groups to watch comedy and drama movies for mood induction. After watching, some snacks were presented, and then energy intake and blood pressure were measured.

Findings

Students who suffered from severe state anxiety, consumed more energy from food when they watched a dramatic movie (p = 0.014). Subjects who suffered from moderate level of state anxiety and watched a dramatic movie experienced more systolic and diastolic blood pressure compared with subjects who suffered from moderate state anxiety but watched the comedy (p = 0.043 and p = 0.041, for systolic and diastolic blood pressure respectively). More diastolic blood pressure was shown among students who watched the drama movie and suffered from a severe level of trait anxiety (p = 0.049).

Research limitations/implications

Electrocardiography and stroke volume measurement were not used.

Originality/value

Our findings showed blood pressure elevation in anxious people when they experienced bad feeling such as sadness, and they also consumed more energy from food. Both of these factors are related to the occurrence of chronic disorders such as cardiovascular diseases.

Keywords

Acknowledgements

The authors greatly appreciate the Student Research Committee of Ahvaz Jundishapur University of Medical Sciences, which supported the study (grant ID: 95S92). The authors also thank the students who participated in the study.

Citation

Jampour, L., Hashemi, H., Behrouzian, F. and Jafarirad, S. (2020), "The interaction effect of anxiety and mood on energy intake and blood pressure in healthy women university students", Nutrition & Food Science, Vol. 50 No. 2, pp. 269-279. https://doi.org/10.1108/NFS-04-2019-0128

Publisher

:

Emerald Publishing Limited

Copyright © 2019, Emerald Publishing Limited

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