Relationship of work stress with eating behavior and obesity: Theoretical and empirical considerations
The changing world of work and the challenges emerging from labor contexts for economically active persons are lines of analysis and reflexion that stand out in recent years by the effects it poses to the health and lifestyles of people and organizations. More and more people in the world are overweight or obese, where labor scenarios do not escape from this situation. The aim of this paper was to conduct a systematic review of research that has been published in recent years on the relationships of work stress with eating behavior and obesity, based on the findings emerging from eight scientific databases and an academic search engine. It has been found that 50% of the consulted papers report a positive correlation between job stress and body mass index, while 33% of the studies found that occupational stress is accompanied by eating disorder, reflected as obesity or overweight. These results indicate the relevance and necessity of further study on the correlation between occupational stress and eating behaviour, because the serious impact that it should imply on health problems on the working population, and its repercussion on the whole society.