Association of Occupational Stress and Obesity among Working Women Aged 25-40 Years in Universities of Islamabad

Abstract

Occupational stress, a chronic issue resulting from job-related factors like high demands, workload, and lack of support, affects a large workforce. The rising prevalence of overweight and obesity in modern society is largely driven by technological advancements and unhealthy behaviors. There is a notable research gap in finding the association between occupational stress and obesity in Islamabad. This study employs a cross-sectional research design to examine the association between occupational stress and obesity in working women aged 25- 40 years in universities in Islamabad. This study aims to find out whether the stress experienced in the workplace contributes to obesity or not in that population. This study uses a self-reported questionnaire that assesses occupational stress, body mass index and other demographic variables such as age, marital status, occupation and number of children and data collected through Google Forms. The calculated sample size was 334 but data was collected from 150 participants as few even refused to participate in the study. The participants were from various universities in Islamabad with the majority of younger women (age 25-30) in fields such as science and technology and business and finance sectors reporting higher stress levels. The findings of the study revealed that there is a weak but statistically significant positive correlation (r = 0.175, p = 0.039) between occupational stress and body mass index (BMI), suggesting that if occupational stress increases, BMI tends to increase slightly. However, this correlation was not that strong enough to establish stress as the contributing factor to obesity. The finding of this study also led to the rejection of the null hypothesis that “there is no association between stress and obesity”, in favor of the alternative hypothesis, indicating a slight association. The results of this study highlight the importance of addressing occupational stress in the workplace as a potential contributor to obesity. Based on the results, this study recommends the implementation of workplace stress management programs and workshops to reduce the effects of stress in the workplace among the employees thus creating a supportive environment. It also advocates for gender-sensitive health interventions to support working women in managing stress and maintaining a healthy lifestyle. This study also contributes to the literature on the association of occupational stress and obesity in women, emphasizing the need for comprehensive strategies to improve the mental and physical wellbeing of employees.