Stress is associated with nutritional intake and metabolic syndrome in urban middle-aged women

This study was conducted to investigate whether stress is associated with nutritional intake and risk of metabolic syndrome in urban middle-aged women. Subjects were participants from the Health Examinee Study, which was a part of the Korean Genome and Epidemiology Study. According to scores of the Psychosocial Well-being Index-Short Form, a total of 81,629 subjects were classified into a low stress group (n=70,873, 0 to 26 points) and a high stress group (n=10,756, ≥27 points). Dietary intake was assessed by a semi-quantitative food frequency questionnaire. The high stress group showed higher intake of carbohydrates and lower intake of other nutrients compared to the low stress group. Subjects with high stress also showed a higher odds ratio (OR) of metabolic syndrome (OR: 1.09, 95% confidence interval (95% CI): 1.03∼1.16), including abdominal obesity (OR: 1.06, 95% CI: 1.01∼1.11), elevated triglyceride (OR: 1.11, 95% CI: 1.05∼1.18), and elevated fasting glucose (OR: 1.08, 95% CI: 1.02∼1.14), compared to those with low stress levels. Moreover, there were increasing trends in the OR of metabolic syndrome with higher intake of carbohydrate (OR: 1.30, 95% CI: 1.20∼1.41). These results suggest that stress might partially increase metabolic syndrome in middle-aged women with high carbohydrate intake.