Bulletin of Semashko National Research Institute of Public HealthBulletin of Semashko National Research Institute of Public Health2415-84102415-8429FSSBI «N.A. Semashko National Research Institute of Public Health»271910.25742/NRIPH.2024.01.001Научная статьяEating behavior of university students: relationships with age, body mass index, psychological distress and social supportMengistGetnet A.getabebe7@gmail.comhttps://orcid.org/0000-0002-8269-7424SavvinaNadezhda V.nadvsavvina@mail.ruhttps://orcid.org/0000-0003-2441-6193Northeastern Federal University named after M.K.Ammosov1603202428151025042025Copyright © 2025,2025<p>Understanding eating behaviors and the factors that affect them is important for the prevention and treatment of overweight and obesity. Therefore, the aim of this study was to determine the relationship of subscales of eating behaviors with age, body mass index, psychological distress and social support among university students in Yakutsk, Republic of Sakha (Yakutia). An online cross-sectional survey was conducted among undergraduate students of North-Eastern Federal University named after M.K.Ammosov from October 1 to November 30, 2022. An independent sample t-test and Pearson's correlation coefficient were used for analysis of the data. The p-value cutoff for statistical significance was 0.05. A total of 384 study participants were included in the analysis. Among the study participants, 242 (63%) were females with a mean age of 20.93+2.1 years. The majority of study participants (69%) had external eating behavior, 67.4% had emotional eating behavior and 43.8% had restrictive eating behavior. The three kinds of eating behaviors namely emotional eating behavior, restrictive eating behavior and external eating behavior were positively correlated each other. The eating behaviors were also correlated with psychological distress and body mass index. 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