RESUMO
BACKGROUND: In civilians, overweight and obesity are associated with emotional eating behaviors such as eating in response to stress, but this association has not been examined in Soldiers, a population with unique stressors. This cross-sectional study examined the relationship between perceived stress (PS), emotional eating (EE), and outcomes of body mass index (BMI), and failing Army body composition (BC) standards among Soldiers. METHODS: Soldiers (Nâ¯=â¯1460, 83% male, 23.5⯱â¯5.2â¯years old) completed validated surveys on PS, EE, and adherence with military BC standards. Conditional process models and mediation models tested gender as a moderator and EE as a mediator of associations between PS and BMI and PS and BC failure, respectively. RESULTS: Higher PS was associated with more frequent self-reported EE behaviors (pâ¯<â¯0.001), higher BMI (pâ¯<â¯0.001), and BC failure (pâ¯<â¯0.001). BMI significantly increased with frequency of reported EE behaviors (pâ¯<â¯0.001). Gender was not a statistically significant moderator in the relationship between PS, EE, and, BMI (pâ¯=â¯0.83) or BC failure (pâ¯=â¯0.57). PS appears to affect BMI indirectly through EE behaviors (c'â¯=â¯0.03, 95% CI: 0.02, 0.04). PS may affect BC failure directly (c'â¯=â¯1.04, 95% CI: 1.01, 1.08) and indirectly (abâ¯=â¯1.02, 95% CI: 1.01, 1.03) through EE as a mediator. CONCLUSIONS: EE behaviors may mediate the positive association between PS, BMI, and BC failure. Prospective investigation is warranted to better understand the role of EE in health-related outcomes among Soldiers and populations in high stress professions.