The Influence of Bereavement on Body Mass Index: Results from a National Swedish Survey

Abstract

BackgroundPrevious findings suggest that the loss of a family member is associated with health and mortality. The purpose of this study was to investigate the association between bereavement experiences and BMI, and whether there are socio-demographic differences in this association.ObjectiveTo investigate the association between bereavement experiences and BMI, and whether there are socio-demographic differences in this association.MethodsWe used cross-sectional data with retrospective questions from the Swedish Level of Living Survey (LNU) of 2000, including 5,142 individuals. The bereavement experiences examined in the study include the loss of a sibling, a parent or a spouse, and time since the death of a parent. BMI (kg/m2) was calculated using self-reported measurements of weight and height. The association between bereavement and BMI was evaluated through linear regressions.ResultsAfter controlling for possible confounders, most of the models detected an association between bereavement and BMI. The fully-adjusted model showed that loss of parents was associated with a 0.45 increase in BMI (SE = 0.20). The effect also seemed to be dependent on time since the loss and social class position.ConclusionsThe present study is the first to examine associations between different types of familial losses and BMI. We find an association between the death of a family member and BMI, but it appears to be related to time since the death, type of bereavement experience and social class.

Examining the association between early life social adversity and BMI changes in childhood: a life course trajectory analysis

“…There was evidence for a dose–response relationship as the increase in BMI at age 17 for children who moved twice compared to those who did not move was just over two‐thirds (2.7%) that of the increase for those who moved three or more times (4.2%). There was also evidence for a positive association between parental separation and BMI as has been previously identified by other studies , although this association was small and diminished with time indicating only short‐term effects of separation on BMI. Parental death was associated with lower BMI throughout the whole of childhood and adolescence but there was insufficient power to reliably determine associations (n = 30).…”

“…Individual item responses were recoded from a 4-point Likert scale and summed to provide an overall financial difficulty score across all items for the four time points where a value of 0 represented no financial difficulty and a value of 15 represented maximum financial difficulty. These scores were then categorized as 'no financial difficulty' (0), 'some finan-cial difficulty' (1)(2)(3)(4), 'moderate financial difficulty' (5-9) and 'great financial difficulty' (10)(11)(12)(13)(14)(15). At 8, 21, 33 and 47 months, mothers and their partners were asked to report whether their respective partners had died or separated from them.…”

“…Weight and height data were used from a variety of sources including health visitor records, parental reports and measurements taken at clinic visits. Four measurements were taken from routine health visitor records (as part of standard UK childcare) at around 2, 10, 21 and 48 months; mothers were asked to report their child's height and weight regularly from 3 years; clinics were carried out at 4, 8, 12 and 18 months for a subset of 10% of participants and at 7,8,9,10,11,12,13,15 and 17 years for all participants. BMI was calculated as weight (kg) divided by height (m) squared.…”

Sensitive Periods for the Association Between Childhood Maltreatment and BMI

“…This omission was intentional because child maltreatment predisposes an individual to subsequent adversity, 43,44 creating the potential that adversity in young adulthood mediates-rather than confounds-the relationship between child maltreatment and BMI. Given that trauma external to child maltreatment is associated with well-being, [45][46][47][48] however, future studies should consider associations between a wider array of trauma forms and BMI over time. Moreover, the present analyses focused on unique associations between child maltreatment types and BMI over time; evaluating relationships between co-occurring maltreatment and BMI would add nuance to these investigated associations.…”

Why young women gain weight: A narrative review of influencing factors and possible solutions

“…Bereavement can cause stress and reactive depression that can impact on weight via effects on both PA and energy intake (also see Section 4.2). Swedish data from 18‐ to 75‐ year‐olds (n = 5142) showed that the loss of one or both parents was associated with weight gain, for example, losing both parents leads to a 0.45 (SE 0.20) unit increase in BMI . They found that the effect of bereavement on weight was highest 4 to 8 years after losing a parent.…”