title: Eating behaviour patterns and BMI in Portuguese higher education students.
abstract: Our aim was to determine prototypical patterns of eating behaviour among Portuguese higher education students, and to relate these patterns with BMI. Data from 280 higher education students (63.2% females) aged between 18 and 27 years were analysed. Several eating behaviour dimensions (emotional and external eating, flexible and rigid restraint, binge eating, and eating self-efficacy) were assessed, and eating styles were derived through cluster analysis. BMI for current, desired and maximum self-reported weights and the differences between desired and current BMI and between maximum and current BMI were calculated. Women scored higher in emotional eating and restraint, whereas men showed higher eating self-efficacy. Men had higher current, desired and maximum BMI. Cluster analysis showed three eating styles in both male and female subsamples: "Overeating", "High self-efficacy" and "High restraint". High self-efficacy women showed lower BMI values than the others, and restrictive women had higher lost BMI. High self-efficacy men showed lower desired BMI than overeaters, and lower maximum and lost BMI than highly restrictive ones. Restrictive women and men differ on important eating behaviour features, which may be the cause of differences in the associations with BMI. Eating self-efficacy seems to be a central variable influencing the relationships between other eating behaviour dimensions and BMI.
authors.affiliation: Faculdade de Ciências da Nutrição e Alimentação, Universidade do Porto, Rua Dr. Roberto Frias, 4200-465 Porto, Portugal. Electronic address: ruipoinhos@fcna.up.pt.
authors.forename: Rui
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Poínhos
authors.forename: Bruno M P M
authors.initials: BM
authors.lastname: Oliveira
authors.forename: Flora
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Correia
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D015992:Body Mass Index; D016000:Cluster Analysis; D004522:Educational Status; D004644:Emotions; D005247:Feeding Behavior / Q000523:psychology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009765:Obesity / Q000523:psychology; D011174:Portugal; D020377:Self Efficacy; D013334:Students; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D044465:White People; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Binge eating; Body mass index; Dietary restraint; Eating self-efficacy; Emotional eating; External eating