Anxiety levels according to weight status and diet quality during alarm state in primary school children

Introducción: existe evidencia creciente que relaciona mantener hábitos saludables con menores niveles de ansiedad en población adulta. Esta asociación no se ha explorado suficientemente en las primeras fases etarias. Objetivo: analizar la relación entre la ansiedad, el estado de peso y la calidad de la dieta en escolares de Educación Primaria durante el estado de alarma decretado a causa del COVID-19. Métodos: estudio descriptivo transversal sobre una muestra de 116 escolares españoles. Se utilizaron dos cuestionarios: Spence Children Anxiety Scale (SCAS) y el cuestionario KIDMED. Por su parte, el estado nutricional se evaluó mediante el Índice de Masa Corporal (kg/m2) ajustados por sexo y edad. Resultados: el análisis de varianza simple arrojó que el estado de peso se relacionó significativamente con las dimensiones ataques de pánico y agorafobia (p < .036) y trastorno de ansiedad generalizada (p < .025). Sin embargo, no se hallaron diferencias significativas en ninguna de las dimensiones de la ansiedad considerando la calidad de la dieta (p > .05). En la relación conjunta entre el estado de peso y la calidad de la dieta con las dimensiones de la ansiedad no se encontraron diferencias significativas (p > .05).Introduction: there is growing evidence that relates to maintaining healthy habits with lower levels of anxiety in the adult population. This association has not been sufficiently explored in the early age phases. Objective: to analyze the relationship between anxiety, weight status and the quality of diet in primary school students during the state of alarm decreed due to COVID-19. Methods: a descriptive cross-sectional study on a sample of 116 Spanish schoolchildren. Two questionnaires were used: Spence Children Anxiety Scale (SCAS) and the KIDMED questionnaire. On the other hand, the nutritional status was evaluated using the Body Mass Index (kg / m2) adjusted for sex and age. Results: the analysis of simple variance showed that weight status was significantly related to the dimensions of panic attacks and agoraphobia (p <.036) and generalized anxiety disorder (p <.025). However, no significant differences were found in any of the anxiety dimensions considering the quality of the diet (p> .05). In the joint relationship between weight status and diet quality with anxiety dimensions, no significant differences were found (p> .05). Conclusions: Despite not obtaining significance, it is observed that those schoolchildren with better weight status and an optimal diet quality obtain, for all dimensions, lower levels of anxiety than their overweight peers and an improved diet quality. Future prospective studies should shed light on these relationship