Relation of body mass index to depression and weighing frequency in overweight women

Abstract

Objective-Research suggests that overweight and obesity are associated with depressive symptoms, particularly among women. Evidence from weight control trials suggests that higher weighing frequency is associated with greater weight loss or less weight gain. As limited data exist on the effects of self-weighing on body mass index (BMI) among overweight adults with or without depression, this study seeks to examine this issue using data from a population-based epidemiologic survey.Methods-Data from a large population-based survey of 4,655 women ages 40-65 in the greater Seattle area, surveyed from November 2003 to February 2005, were used to examine associations of depression and weight self-monitoring with BMI. Sample-weighted regression models were used to examine associations of depression, self-weighing frequency, and BMI, with demographic factors (race/ethnicity, employment status, smoking status, age, martial status, educational attainment) entered as covariates.Results-Regression models indicated that higher self-weighing frequency and negative depression status were independently associated with lower BMI, with no interaction observed between depression and self-weighing. Conclusion-Frequentself-weighing appears to be associated with lower BMI in both depressed and nondepressed overweight women.

Watching My Weight: Self-Weighing, Body Surveillance, and Body Dissatisfaction

“…**p<.01 body weight, resulting in self-criticism when individuals do not achieve their weight loss goals. Taken together, our results suggest frequent self-weighing may have harmful consequences for women's psychological health, a finding that is inconsistent with a number of studies we described earlier (e.g., Linde et al 2007;Wing et al 2007). We suspect that the conflicting findings may be related to the population under study.…”

“…Women are routinely inundated with recommendations and 'tricks' that presumably help reduce, control, or maintain weight (e.g., Malkin et al 1999;Kurtz 2010). Although some of this advice may be useful and appropriate for some subgroups of the population, researchers have questioned the possible negative mental health consequences of engaging in certain weight control strategies (e.g., Ogden and Evans 1996;Linde et al 2007). Self-weighing is one such strategy that has garnered recent empirical attention (e.g., Linde et al 2005).…”

“…Researchers have most frequently examined depression as an outcome, and studies conducted on US adults seeking weight loss treatment have either found no association (Linde et al 2007) or have found that increased self-weighing is related to a decrease in depressive symptoms (Wing et al 2007). A randomized controlled weight loss trial on obese adults found that selfweighing frequency was unrelated to body satisfaction at a 6 month follow-up (Welsh et al 2009).…”

“…Similar to Linde et al (2007), we measured the frequency of self-weighing by asking participants "How often do you weigh yourself?" Participants chose from one of the following response options: never, at least once a year but not as often as once a month, 1-3 times a month, 1-6 times a week, once a day, or twice a day or more.…”

Relação entre exercício físico, depressão e índice de massa corporal

“…Num estudo que contou com a participação de 4655 mulheres com idades compreendidas entre os 40 e 65 anos, estudou-se a associação entre a obesidade e sintomas depressivos através de uma população epidemiológica, observando-se que a obesidade e a depressão se encontram positivamente associadas (Linde, Jeffery, Finch, Simon, Ludman, Operskalski et al, 2007). Na mesma perspectiva, Dragan e Akhtar-Danesh (2007), estudaram a relação entre o índice de massa corporal e depressão numa amostra de 12376 indivíduos, verificandose uma forte associação entre estas duas variáveis e diferenças de género.…”