Abstract
Reduction diets may be associated with health-related risk factors and illhealth. In this context, there is an increasing call to more thoroughly specify psychological preconditions for negative dieting effects. This study scrutinizes the association of dieting behaviour with frequent overeating, and the role of dissatisfaction with one's body weight, for women and men.
Data of the Survey 1999/2001 of the Cooperative Health Research in the Augsburg Region (KORA; random sample from public registry offices listings; N=4261; age range: 25–74, response: 67%) were analysed via multiple regressions. Dieting behaviour (at least one episode in the last 12 months), body weight dissatisfaction, and overeating were assessed via KORA-items in computer-aided personal interviews. Age, place of residence, marital status, socio-economic status, body mass index (measured by anthropometry), nutritional pattern, alcohol consumption, smoking and physical activity were adjusted for.
Dieting is predictive for frequent overeating among men only (OR=1.69, p < 0.05). In contrast, the odds for frequent overeating among both sexes were twofold given body weight dissatisfaction (OR=2.1, p < 0.001). Also, the association of dieting behaviour and overeating among men is attributable to those who are dissatisfied with their weight (33% rate of frequent overeating after dieting vs. 21% without; p < 0.05).
Body weight dissatisfaction is more strongly associated with frequent overeating than dieting behaviour, and, among men, a precondition for the association of dieting behaviour and frequent overeating. The study suggests taking into account dieting behaviour when attending to the issue of body experience in interventions targeting eating behaviour, especially among men.
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