Stressed females, rather than males, tend to eat away from home

The aim of this study is to examine the association between perceived stress and multifarious eating away from home among Chinese adults in different genders.

We examined cross-sectional data from the China Health and Nutrition Survey conducted in 2018 among Chinese adults aged 18-59 years. A self-reported questionnaire involving the perceived stress scale with 10 items (PSS-10), and the food frequency questionnaire about eating away from home were used. Adjusted two-level zero-inflated Poisson regression models were used to explore the association.

There were 3161 males and 3599 females in the study. The median PSS-10 score was 16.0 and the frequencies of eating 1) breakfast, 2) lunch or supper, and 3) three main meals away from home were 12, 10, and 49 times per year, respectively. In males, PSS-10 score was not associated with eating away from home. In females, PSS-10 score was significantly positively associated with eating 1) lunch or supper, 2) three main meals, 3) Chinese food away from home, and 4) eating at stalls/restaurants (β₁ = 0.016, P₁ = 0.006; β₂ = 0.014, P₂ = 0.002; β₃ = 0.015, P₃ = 0.013; β₄ = 0.014, P₄ = 0.015 respectively). But there was not association between PSS-10 score and the frequency of eating breakfast away from home in females (β = 0.006, P = 0.325).

Stressed females tend to eat away from home, but the effects are very small.