The Associations Between Psychological Distress and Body Mass Index Among Young Adults

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9. Background:
Young adults all over the world face a great deal of difficulties in their daily life. This age group contain high school student, college students, and post graduates. Being a student is not as comfortable as many people might imagine. The kind of stress they have is unique because it is prolonged and whenever finish, starts again. Doing assignments, studying for midterms, deciding their specialties, looking for jobs, and initiating their life careers are examples of the stressors they might face. Moreover, the final exams remain the biggest stressor for the students, because they make them stressed continuously throughout the year to prepare well for it. This stress affects the general health as well as the academic performance. The bad impact on health can be exaggerated if associated with obesity.(1)
Obesity is defined as an increase in the body fat above the normal range. It is associated with a wide range of life threatening conditions such as cardiovascular diseases, diabetes mellitus, musculoskeletal disorders, and many others.
A crude population estimation of obesity is the body mass index system (BMI). It is calculated by dividing one’s body mass over the square root of their height. It is giving universally in the units of kg/m2. According to the BMI system, a person is considered obese when one scores ≥ 30 on the scale.
Obesity affects globally around 12% of adults aged twenty and over, according to a study conducted in 2008. In Saudi Arabia, obesity is a major concern of health. It’s one of the highest in the world. The prevalence of obesity among females is higher than that of males (39.1% - 28.6%) respectively.(2)
Many studies have suggested the stress and other mental diseases been associated with ...

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...y/nmh/countries/sau_en.pdf.
3. Block JP, He Y, Zaslavsky AM, Ding L, Ayanian JZ. Psychosocial Stress and Change in Weight Among US Adults. American Journal of Epidemiology. 2009 July 15, 2009;170(2):181-92.
4. Gu JK, Charles LE, Burchfiel CM, Andrew ME, Ma C, Bang KM, et al. Associations between Psychological Distress and Body Mass Index among Law Enforcement Officers: The National Health Interview Survey 2004-2010. Safety and Health at Work. 2013;4(1):52-62.
5. Prochaska JJ, Sung H-Y, Max W, Shi Y, Ong M. Validity study of the K6 scale as a measure of moderate mental distress based on mental health treatment need and utilization. International Journal of Methods in Psychiatric Research. 2012;21(2):88-97.
6. Andrews G, Slade T. Interpreting scores on the Kessler Psychological Distress Scale (K10). Australian and New Zealand Journal of Public Health. 2001;25(6):494-7.

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