Stress of college linked to weight

EDMONTON, Alberta, Oct. 5 (UPI) -- A study at the University of Alberta brings new insight to the "freshman 15" -- the seemingly inevitable weight gain by students starting college.

The study, published in Journal of Youth & Adolescence, says one of the negative effects for women moving away from home and adapting to a new social environment is being three times more likely than freshmen women living with parents to report symptoms of binge eating.

Additionally, students away at college who felt dissatisfied with their bodies were also three times more likely to report binge eating their first year of studies.

"Few studies have explored the links between the challenges associated with the transition of entering university and eating problems," Erin Barker, of Beloit College in Wisconsin, said in a statement. Barker conducted the study while at the University of Alberta.

More than 100, full-time female first-year students at the university completed a Web-based daily checklist of health behaviors -- sleeping, eating, exercise, alcohol use -- for 14 consecutive days within the first three months of college.

Barker says research should study whether adjustment to the transition to university life contributes to binge eating in young men as well.