Lin, Y. S., Tung, Y. T., Yen, Y. C., & Chien, Y. W. (2020). Food Addiction Mediates the Relationship between Perceived Stress and Body Mass Index in Taiwan Young Adults. Nutrients, 12
(7), 1951. https://doi.org/10.3390/nu12071951
From the research article’s abstract: “Perceived stress is the degree of stress experienced by an individual in the face of a stressor. Studies have shown that stress affects emotions, leads to behavioral changes, and is likely to trigger physical illnesses. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), stress is classified as a health epidemic of the 21st century; in the meantime, the percentage of adults being overweight and with obesity has continued to grow after reaching 38.9% in 2016. Hence, it is unclear whether perceived stress has become a factor affecting progressive obesity and whether food addiction (FA) is an intermediate factor. The purposes of this study were to (1) investigate the FA prevalence among young adults in Taiwan, (2) understand correlations among perceived stress, FA, and the body mass index (BMI), and (3) determine the potential mediating effect of FA due to perceived stress on BMI.