Anxiety levels according to weight status and diet quality during alarm state in primary school children

Abstract

Introduction: there is growing evidence that relates to maintaining healthy habits with lower levels of anxiety in the adult population. This association has not been sufficiently explored in the early age phases.
Objective: to analyze the relationship between anxiety, weight status and the quality of diet in primary school students during the state of alarm decreed due to COVID-19.

Methods: a descriptive cross-sectional study on a sample of 116 Spanish schoolchildren. Two questionnaires were used: Spence Children Anxiety Scale (SCAS) and the KIDMED questionnaire. On the other hand, the nutritional status was evaluated using the Body Mass Index (kg / m2) adjusted for sex
and age.

Results: the analysis of simple variance showed that weight status was significantly related to the dimensions of panic attacks and agoraphobia (p <.036) and generalized anxiety disorder (p <.025). However, no significant differences were found in any of the anxiety dimensions consider ing the quality of the diet (p> .05). In the joint relationship between weight status and diet quality with anxiety dimensions, no significant differences were found (p> .05).

Conclusions: Despite not obtaining significance, it is observed that those schoolchildren with better weight status and an optimal diet quality obtain, for all dimensions, lower levels of anxiety than their overweight peers and an improved diet quality. Future prospective studies should shed light on these relationships.