Binge eating,multimorbidity and sociodemographic characteristics are associated with a high prevalence of depression and anxiety in adults with class II and III obesity

Abstract

Background

Obesity increases chronic disease risk and is related to psychological implications like depression and anxiety. However, research has predominantly focused on overweight or class I obesity, leaving a gap concerning severe (class II/III) obesity. The objective of this study was to evaluate the prevalence of anxiety and depression and associated factors in adults with class II/III obesity.

Methods

This cross-sectional study used baseline data from the DieTBra Clinical Trial. A total of 150 adults (mean age 39.6 ± 8.8 years; 85.3% female) with class II/III obesity were evaluated. Sociodemographic, lifestyle, biochemical variables (iron, 25-hydroxyvitamin D, vitamin B12, homocysteine, C-reactive protein), multimorbidity, and binge eating disorder (BED) were assessed. The hospital anxiety and depression scale and binge eating scale were used. The outcomes analyzed were anxiety symptoms, depression, and their co-occurrence, using multiple Poisson regression with a significance level of 5%.

Results

The prevalence of depression was 63.3%, anxiety 72.7%, and their co-occurrence was 56.7%. After multivariate analysis, factors associated with anxiety were female sex (p = 0.048), age over 50 (p = 0.029), lower educational level (p = 0.002), and BED (p = 0.003). Factors associated with depression included: female sex (p = 0.006), age over 50 (p = 0.029), age 18–29 (p = 0.043), multimorbidity (p = 0.027), and BED (p = 0.026).

Conclusions

We observed high prevalences of anxiety, depression, and their co-occurrence in adults with class II/III obesity. Independent risk factors included female sex, specific age groups, lower educational level, multimorbidity, and BED. Future longitudinal studies are needed to establish causality, and interventional research should focus on these high-risk subgroups.