Relationships Between Perceived Stress and Health Behaviors in a Sample of Working Adults.

TLDR

The study examined how perceived stress relates to fat intake, exercise, alcohol consumption, and smoking behaviors. Data from 12,110 employees in 26 worksites were analyzed using gender‑stratified linear regressions controlling for demographics to assess cross‑sectional associations between stress and health behaviors. Higher stress was linked to a higher‑fat diet, less exercise, more smoking and recent smoking increases, and lower self‑efficacy to quit or resist smoking, but not to alcohol intake, indicating that unhealthy behaviors may partly mediate the stress–disease link.

Abstract

The study examined associations between perceived stress and fat intake, exercise, alcohol consumption, and smoking behaviors. Data were from surveys of 12,110 individuals in 26 worksites participating in the SUCCESS project (D. J. Hennrikus, R. W. Jeffery, & H. A. Lando, 1995), a study of smoking cessation interventions. Linear regression analyses examined cross-sectional associations between stress level and health behaviors. Analyses were stratified by gender and controlled for demographics. High stress for both men and women was associated with a higher fat diet, less frequent exercise, cigarette smoking, recent increases in smoking, less self-efficacy to quit smoking, and less self-efficacy to not smoke when stressed. Stress was not associated with alcohol intake. Findings suggest that the association between stress and disease may be moderated in part by unhealthy behaviors.