International Journal of Collaborative Research on Internal Medicine & Public Health

Sense of coherence and its connections with BMI and weight-related beliefs and attitudes

Background: Several previous researches have tried to connect the sense of coherence (SOC), as stress coping resources measurement, with the nutritional status and food choices of a person. They gave mixed results regarding the relation SOC/BMI, but showed the real potential of SOC in the filed of healthy nutrition promotion.

Aim and Objectives: The aim of this paper was to evaluate the sense of coherence (SOC) score in Romania and to investigate its eventual connections with the weight status evaluated by the body mass index, and other related attitudes and believes.

Methods: a cross sectional study investigating by means of correlation tests and regression the links of the sense of coherence score with demographical characteristics, BMI, weight variation, weight perception, self evaluated health and other items related with weight and diet control. The participants were a random selected sample of 970 Romanians

Results: The SOC score is correlated significantly with gender, socio-economical status, self perceived health, the preoccupation for having a normal weight, the perception of the relation health-normal weight and with the perceived difficulty in maintaining a constant weight. The regression shows that the body mass index is a positive determinant of the SOC score (B =0.051)

Conclusions: The SOC score has close relations with healthy conceptions regarding body weight and healthy eating, but also shows a surprising connection with BMI, higher weights leading to small SOC rises. SOC confirms its health promotion utility in the nutrition field.

Author(s): Corina-Aurelia Zugravu

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