Emotional Health and Weight Gain: A Prospective Study of Midlife Women

Abstract

Purpose.

Investigate the extent to which risk of weight gain is affected by emotional health. Also, determine the influence of age, baseline weight, physical activity (PA), energy intake, and changes in PA and energy intake on the relationship between emotional health and weight gain.

Design.

Prospective cohort.

Setting.

Two metropolitan areas in the Mountain West.

Subjects.

Total of 256 middle-aged, apparently healthy women.

Measures.

Emotional health was assessed using the General Well-Being Schedule. PA was measured using Actigraph accelerometers. Energy intake was measured using 7-day weighed food records. All assessments were taken at baseline and again at the follow-up approximately 2 years later.

Analysis.

Relative risk (RR) was calculated using incidence data.

Results.

With no variables controlled, women with less than positive (LTP) emotional health had 59% greater risk of weight gain (≥ 2 kg) than women with positive emotional health (RR, 1.59; 95% confidence intervals [CI], 1.04–2.44). After adjustments for each potential confounder individually, risk of weight gain did not change significantly. However, adjusting for all of the potential confounders simultaneously weakened the risk of weight gain (RR, 1.43; 95% CI, .93–2.21). Risk of weight gain (≥ 2 kg) was no greater in depressed women compared with their counterparts.

Conclusion.

Middle-aged women with LTP emotional health are at significantly increased risk of weight gain over time compared with women with positive emotional health.

Keywords

Depression Physical Activity Diet Energy Obesity Overweight Mental Prevention Research Manuscript format: research Research purpose: modeling/relationship testing Study design: prospective cohort Outcome measure: biometric,morbidity Setting: community Health focus: weight control Strategy: education,skill building/behavior change Target population age: adults Target population circumstances: geographic location

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Ogden

Carroll

Curtin

. Prevalence of overweight and obesity in the United States, 1999–2004. JAMA. 2006;295:1549–1555.

Kress

Peterson

Hartzell

. Association between obesity and depressive symptoms among U.S. military active duty service personnel, 2002. J Psychosom Res. 2006;60:263–271.

Hasler

Pine

Kleinbaum

. Depressive symptoms during childhood and adult obesity: the Zurich cohort study. Mol Psychiatry. 2005;10:842–850.

Grundy

. Multifactorial causation of obesity: implications for prevention. Am J Clin Nutr. 1998;67:563S–572S.

Gustafson

Sarwer

. Childhood sexual abuse and obesity. Obes Rev. 2004;5:129–135.

Becker

Margraf

Türke

. Obesity and mental illness in a representative sample of young women. Int J Obes Relat Metab Disord. 2001;25(suppl 1):S5–S9.

Simon

Von Korff

Saunders

. Association between obesity and psychiatric disorders in the US adult population. Arch Gen Psychiatry. 2006;63:824–830.

Lacoursiere

Baksh

Bloebaum

Varner

. Maternal body mass index and self-reported postpartum depressive symptoms. Matern Child Health J. 2006;10:385–390.

Gil

Radziłłowicz

Zdrojewski

. Relationship between the prevalence of depressive symptoms and metabolic syndrome: results of the SOPKARD project. Kardiologia Polska. 2006;64:464–469.

10.

Wadden

Butryn

Sarwer

. Comparison of psychosocial status in treatment-seeking women with class III vs. class I–II obesity. Surg Obes Relat Dis. 2006;2:138–145.

11.

Johnston

Johnson

McLeod

Johnston

. The relation of body mass index to depressive symptoms. Can J Public Health. 2004;95:179–183.

12.

Onyike

Crum

Lee

. Is obesity associated with major depression? Results from the third national health and nutrition examination survey. Am J Epidemiol. 2003;158:1139–1147.

13.

Istvan

Zavela

Weidner

. Body weight and psychological distress in NHANES I. Int J Obes Relat Metab Disord. 1992;16:999–1003.

14.

Hopkinson

Bland

. Depressive syndromes in grossly obese women. Can J Psychiatry. 1982;27:213–215.

15.

Hach

Ruhl

Klotsche

. Associations between waist circumference and depressive disorders. J Affect Disord. 2006;92:305–308.

16.

Anderson

Cohen

Naumova

Must

. Association of depression and anxiety disorders with weight change in a prospective community-based study of children followed up into adulthood. Arch Pediatr Adolesc Med. 2006;160:285–291.

17.

Richardson

Davis

Poulton

. A longitudinal evaluation of adolescent depression and adult obesity. Arch Pediatr Adolesc Med. 2003;157:739–745.

18.

Pine

Goldstein

Wolk

Weissman

. The association between childhood depression and adulthood body mass index. Pediatrics. 2000;107:1049–1056.

19.

Roberts

Deleger

Strawbridge

Kaplan

. Prospective association between obesity and depression: evidence from the Alameda County study. Int J Obes Relat Metab Disord. 2003;27:514–521.

20.

Hasler

Pine

Gamma

. The associations between psychopathology and being overweight: a 20-year prospective study. Psychol Med. 2004;34:1047–1057.

21.

Fazio

. A concurrent validational study of the NCHS general well-being schedule. Vital Health Stat 2. 1977;(73):1–53.

22.

Taylor

Poston

WSCII

Haddock

. Psychometric characteristics of the general well-being schedule (GWB) with African-American women. Qual Life Res. 2002;12:31–39.

23.

Nakayama

Toyoda

Ohno

. Validity, reliability and acceptability of the Japanese version of the general well-being schedule (GWBS). Qual Life Res. 2000;9:529–539.

24.

Poston

II Olvera

Yanez

. Evaluation of the factor structure and psychometric characteristics of the general well-being schedule (GWB) with Mexican American women. Women Health. 1998;27:51–64.

25.

Bailey

Tucker

Peterson

LeCheminant

. Test-retest reliability of body fat percentage results using dual energy x-ray absorptiometry and the BOD POD. Med Sc Sports Exerc. 2001;(33):S174.

26.

Ballard

Fafara

Vukovich

. Comparison of Bod Pod and DXA in female collegiate athletes. Med Sci Sports Exerc. 2004;36:731–735.

27.

Noreen

Lemon

. Reliability of air displacement plethysmography in a large, heterogeneous sample. Med Sci Sports Exerc. 2006;38:1505–1509.

28.

Welk

Schaben

Morrow

. Reliability of accelerometry-based activity monitors: a generalizability study. Med Sci Sports Exerc. 2004;36:1637–1645.

29.

Willett

. Nutritional Epidemiology. New York, NY: Oxford University Press; 1998.

30.

Zou

. A modified poisson regression approach to prospective studies with binary data. Am J Epidemiol. 2004;159:702–706.

31.

Harris

Cronkite

Moos

. Physical activity, exercise coping, and depression in a 10-year cohort study of depressed patients. J Affect Disord. 2006;93:79–85.

32.

Masheb

Grilo

. Emotional overeating and its associations with eating disorder psychopathology among overweight patients with binge eating disorder. Int J Eat Disord. 2006;39:141–146.

33.

Polivy

Herman

. Dieting and binging. A causal analysis. Am Psychol. 1985;40:193–201.