Obesity, depression, and alcohol linkages among women

Abstract

| http://medcraveonline.com lifespan. Alcohol usage was the topic of interest, given the possible relevant relationship between food addictions and obesity, depression and alcohol use, and depression and obesity, among women, which has not been well studied. Method Data were sought on PUBMED and the internet using the key terms, obesity, alcohol, women, and depression. English language reports dating back to 1980 were sought, regardless of type. Selected were those pertinent to the ensuing discussion, and these are presented in narrative form, given the lack of depth on any of the specific topics of interest. Results General observations Despite the paucity of data pertaining to the current topics of interest, some of these research efforts do show women tend to be more vulnerable than men in terms of becoming or being obese, especially with regards to extreme obesity, 6 although reasons for this are not clear. However, because women also show greater levels of disability from complications related to obesity, some studies have specifically focused on examining gender-related factors that may explain women's higher rates of obesity. In this regard some data point to the presence of depression or depressive symptoms, given that for every age group, women with depression appear more likely to be obese than women without depression. The proportion of adults with obesity also rose as the severity of depressive symptoms increased in a related analysis. 8 Other data showed 55% of adults taking antidepressant medications, still reported moderate to severe depressive symptoms, and were obese, suggesting other obesity associated factors should be explored. One that has also been explored is alcohol.

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“…7 One factor that has not been well explored is a possible link between alcohol, depression, and obesity. These aforementioned data, presented here, though limited, and not always consistently replicated [eg.,] 14,16 appear sufficient to imply that there may be a link between alcoholism, or excess alcohol intake, and obesity in some women and possibly in men that would be valuable to explore, even if alcoholic intake alone is not a key obesity determinant in women. The link between alcohol, depression, and obesity among women, is also a possible determinant of obesity among women that is not well understood.…”

Spatiotemporal distribution and determinants of overweight or obesity among urban women in Ethiopia: a multivariate decomposition analysis

“…Different factors predispose women to overweight/ obesity including being post-menopausal [20][21][22], older age [23], use of hormonal contraceptives [24,25], being urban residents, and having a higher level of education [11,26], having heavy alcohol drinking [27,28], rich wealth index [26,29], being married [29], and multiparity [29,30].…”