Stress, Work-Related Stress and Eating Disorders

Introduction: Work-related stress is a condition caused by job demands that exceed the individual's ability to cope with them. Its effects can be serious for health and overall well-being, affecting, among other things, eating behaviors and the development of eating disorders. Objectives: To investigate the impact of work-related stress, anxiety and depression on employees' food choices and behavioral responses to food. Method: A cross-sectional quantitative study was conducted on a sample of public and private sector employees who completed a questionnaire on food attitudes and psychological distress. Food attitudes were assessed with the EAT-26 scale, while depression, anxiety and stress were assessed with the DASS-21 scale. Results and Discussion: The questionnaire was completed by 52 employees with a mean age of 39.7 ± 14.0, 75.0% of whom were women, with a mean total employment duration of 14.1 ± 10.2 years. Overall, 5.8% of participants reported very severe depression, 1.9% reported very severe anxiety, and 15.4% reported very severe stress.Moreover, 75.0% of employees were within the normal range of scores on the EAT-26 scale, while 25.0% had evidence of a possible eating disorder. Contrary to expectations, the total score of the DASS-21 was not correlated with the EAT-26 score (p = .930), while no statistically significant correlations were recorded between the dimensions of the two questionnaires. Conclusion: The small sample size is a major limitation of the study that probably affected the finding of statistically significant correlations between the main research variables. Future research can focus on more representative samples in the Greek working population, examining in more detail the relationship between eating disorders and work-related stress.