Mood and emotional intelligence in overweight and obese patients in a public hospital in Paraguay

Abstract

Introduction: Obesity is currently a global problem in most existing cultures, which is growing, this denotes an absence of effective approach that manages to move the patient away from the vulnerability of acquiring other triggering pathologies such as cardiovascular diseases, liver diseases, sleep apnea, insulin resistance, and other metabolic diseases.  even associated with mental health pathologies. Objective: To determine the levels of mood and emotional intelligence in overweight and obese patients in a public hospital in Paraguay. Methodology: Observational, descriptive, cross-sectional, non-probabilistic study for convenience. September 2024 at the General Hospital of San Lorenzo. The sample of 78 patients with a Body Mass Index greater than 25, men and women, through three days of measurement and weighing. The surveys will be completed by previously inspected and diagnosed participants who apply for the study, who are overweight or obese, using anthropometric data and subsequent calculation of body mass index. The form with sociodemographic data and the psychoemotional form of the survey will be based on approved and validated tests to measure the level of emotional self-perception and self-esteem respectively in patients of the hospital. These forms have been used for several research works for psycho-behavioral measurements, these tests used are: Trait, Meta Mood scale, Rosenberg's self-esteem scale and the Stunkard Silhouette test. Descriptive statistical methods will be used and the data collected were analyzed in Microsoft Office Excel. Results: 78 volunteers participated, 58% female, 100% of the adult participants between 25 and 70 years old. 27% of participants overall were diagnosed with grade III obesity, followed by grade I obesity with 26%. While overweight predominates in men with 46%, in women grade III obesity predominates with 40% of the women surveyed. In overweight patients, a 90% predominance of high self-esteem was found, while in patients with Grade III obesity the values of high self-esteem decreased substantially and the diagnoses of low self-esteem increased by 40%. 90% of overweight patients have adequate attention to their emotions, while the table increases towards high attention to emotions with a tendency to hyperemotionality in patients with grade III obesity, as well as in the dimension of emotional clarity, patients obtained 30% of low emotional clarity, reaching 70% in the dimension of low emotional repair. In the results of the silhouette test, none of the participants diagnosed obtained total body satisfaction. Conclusion: It has been shown that the nuances of the Body Mass Index correspond proportionally to certain psychological characteristics that patients manifest such as low self-esteem, low repair and hyperemotionality in patients with Grade III Obesity, which corresponds to a marked sensitivity to external situations as a reflection of the patient's internal emotional controversies.