TITLE:
Dietary Factors Associated with Obesity in Patients with Schizophrenia Living at Home
AUTHORS:
Yukiko Inamura, Teiji Izumi, Kouji Sakurai, Takemi Katsui, Nobuko Murayama
KEYWORDS:
Dietary Habits; Food Records; Obesity; Outpatients; Schizophrenia
JOURNAL NAME:
Food and Nutrition Sciences,
Vol.3 No.10,
October
12,
2012
ABSTRACT: Since a fact-finding survey was conducted in 2005 all over Japan on the eating habits of psychiatric patients living at home, and the results showed that 44.6% of the patients were obese. We carried out a study of dietary factors associated with obesity in patients with schizophrenia living at home in order to develop a dietary education program. Twenty obese patients and 20 non-obese patients were randomly selected from 30 - 50s male patients with schizophrenia in one mental hospital. Dietary survey of 3-non-consecutive-day was conducted. Eighteen obese patients and 17 non-obese patients completed the survey. The obese patients had significantly higher intake of carbohydrate (P = 0.02), consumption of snacks with junk foods (P = 0.04), and intake of energy from snacks (P ) than those of non-obese patients. Based on this dietary survey, it becomes necessary to focus on snacks, in addition to basic focus on balanced diet to prevent further obesity in those schizophrenic patients.