Overeating, late dinner, and perceived stress in Japanese workers

This study examined relationships among overeating at dinner, dinner time, perceived stress, and strategies for coping with stress among Japanese workers.

In December 2012, 255 male Japanese workers at a leasing company completed a questionnaire about overeating (score range: 5-20), dinner time, perceived stress, and strategies for coping with stress. Each worker was sent an email with a link to a website, where their answers were collected. Relationships among overeating, dinner time, perceived stress, and stress-related coping strategies were investigated using two-way analysis of variance.

The analyses of cross-sectional data revealed no differences in the overeating scores among those who ate dinner before 21:00 according to their level of perceived stress. However, those who ate dinner after 21:00 and reported feeling stressed tended to overeat at dinner (F(1, 237)=5.62, p=0.019). Additionally, those with perceived stress engaged in emotional expression involving others, and those without perceived stress tended to seek help to solve their problems and change their mood. We found no significant interactions involving the items related to strategies for coping with stress.

This study found that overeating at dinner was related to dinner time and perceived stress. Additionally, the combination of a late dinner time and perceived stress reinforced overeating at dinner. The results of this study do not identify a coping strategy to prevent overeating.