[Eating behavior and its association with nutritional status and physical activity in a general Chilean population]

obesity has become a chronic disease whose etiology can be based on an imbalance between the contribution and energy expenditure of the individual, where the behavior against food consumption and physical activity play an important role as determinants in this energy balance.

in the present study, behavior in relation to food consumption and physical activity and its association with nutritional status in a general Chilean population was analyzed. It was a cross-sectional study in 629 people, belonging to the university community of the Andres Bello University. The subjects answered online surveys about sociodemographic, anthropometric, attitude to food consumption (TFEQ) and physical activity (GPAQ).

the factorial structure of the TFEQ questionnaire in Spanish showed two factors: the "cognitive restriction" factor and the "disinhibition versus food" factor. With regard to nutritional status, it was found that 39.4% of the population had malnutrition due to excess. In relation to physical activity, half of the subjects performed less than 36 minutes of exercise per day. Individuals with uninhibited behavior towards food presented less practice of total physical activity. Additionally, subjects with low BMI and with greater age were more likely to present a restrictive behavior towards food.

in the TFEQ questionnaire, two factors were found that explain the variation of behavior in relation to food consumption, which were associated with BMI and with physical activity in the study population.