The association between perceived stress and obesity among young adults: mediating effect of health status

The present study aims to analyze the impact of stress on obesity and the mediating effect of subjective health perception among health conditions that have recently attracted attention as a risk factor for obesity in young adults in Korea. A cross-sectional study based on data from a national health survey. Data were obtained from the 8th Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (2019-2021). The study participants were 3053 individuals aged 19-34 years. To analyze effect of health status on the association between stress and obesity, mediating effect analysis was used. For both men and women, higher perceived stress levels were associated with worse subjective health perception (β = 0.257, p < 0.001; and β = 0.380, p < 0.001, respectively), and "bad" subjective health perception was more likely than "good" subjective health perception to be associated with obesity (β = 0.319, p < 0.001; and β = 0.377, p < 0.001, respectively). The more stress that men and women felt, the more likely they were to suffer from obesity (β = 0.136, p < 0.05; and β = 0.195, p < 0.001, respectively). In addition, analysis of the mediating effect of subjective health perception on the effect of stress on obesity revealed that for men, stress affected obesity through subjective health perception, while for women, stress had a direct effect on obesity as well as an indirect effect through subjective health perception. To effectively prevent and manage obesity in young adults, health conditions such as stress and subjective health should be considered in tandem, and more systematic strategies that differ according to gender are required.