Mental Health, Family Function and Obesity: RESULTS
Table 1 shows comparisons of the demographic, clinical and health behavior characteristics of our study population across weight categories. Obese women in this sample tended to be older, have higher parity, higher anxiety scores, lower perception of physical health and more negative psychosocial problems in their family of origin, compared to the normal and overweight women. Approximately 21% of the women screened positive for generalized anxiety disorder, and 39% of the women screened positive for depressive symptoms. Compared to norms for the general population, women in this sample had greater family dysfunction as indicated by the low scores on all subscales (Table 1). However, the weight groups only differed significantly on one subscale; obese women had more psychosocial problems than overweight or normal weight women (p=0.04). Obese women tended to reflect back to a younger age (median age of 15 years) when answering the family functioning questions than the overweight (median age of 16.5 years) or normal weight (median age of 17 years) groups. Furthermore, women answering yes (n=41) to “Do you eat more when you are depressed?” were significantly heavier (mean BMI of 32.7 kg/m2, SD=8.0) than women (n=71) answering no (mean BMI of 29.2 kg/m2, SD=6.6, p<0.01), adjusting for age and parity.
Table 1. Differences in Demographic, Health Perceptions, Psychosocial and Behavioral Characteristics across Weight Categories in 113 African-American Women
| Participant Characteristics |
All |
Normal |
Overweight |
Obese |
P Value |
|
n=113 |
BMI <25 kg/m2 |
BMI 25-<30 kg/m2 |
BMI >30 kg/m2 |
||
|
n=24 |
n=34 |
n=53 |
|||
| Demographic | |||||
| Age in years, mean (SD**) |
42.7 (11.0) |
37.4 (11.9) |
43.7 (10.7) |
44.6 (10.0) |
0.02 |
| Married, n (%) |
53 (49.9) |
12 (46.2) |
17 (50.0) |
24 (45.3) |
0.91 |
| Annual household income, n (%) | |||||
| greater than $30,000 |
52 (46.0) |
10 (38.5) |
20 (58.8) |
22 (41.5) |
0.19 |
| Number of birth children, n (%) | |||||
| two or more |
68 (60.2) |
10 (38.5) |
20 (58.8) |
38 (71.7) |
0.02 |
| Mental & Physical Health | |||||
| Anxiety score (SAS), mean(SD) |
35.9 (10.6) |
32.5 (8.9) |
34.2 (10.4) |
38.6 (10.9) |
0.03* |
| scores (CES-D), | |||||
| mean (SD) (scores >27 positive | |||||
| for depressive symptoms) |
21.1 (8.7) |
19.6 (7.5) |
20.0 (8.5) |
22.5 (9.2) |
0.26 |
| Mental component | |||||
| (SF12-MCS), mean (SD) |
46.8 (11.8) |
50.7 (9.9) |
47.3 (11.2) |
44.5 (12.6) |
0.08 |
| Physical component | |||||
| (SF12-PCS), mean (SD) |
44.1 (9.4) |
45.9 (9.9) |
46.6 (8.8) |
41.7 (8.9) |
0.03* |
| Overweight as a child | |||||
| <13 years, n (%) |
19 (16.8) |
1 (3.8) |
3 (8.8) |
15 (28.3) |
0.008* |
| Overweight parents or siblings. | |||||
| n(%) |
55 (48.7) |
9 (34.6) |
12 (35.3) |
34 (64.2) |
0.008* |
| Family System Assessment | |||||
| (FSAT)+ | |||||
| Triangulation, mean (SD); pop | |||||
| norm 14.5 (3.47) |
12.3 (3.2) |
12.4 (3.1) |
13.1 (2.8) |
11.7 (3.4) |
0.13 |
| Individuation, mean (SD); pop | |||||
| norm 17.9 (4.49) |
15.4 (4.1) |
16.5 (3.7) |
15.5 (4.1) |
14.8 (4.3) |
0.20 |
| Intimacy, mean (SD); pop | |||||
| norm 16.0 (4.06) |
13.1 (2.4) |
13.7 (1.8) |
13.4 (2.8) |
12.6 (2.3) |
0.12 |
| Cutoff, mean (SD); pop norm | |||||
| 19.1 (4.47) |
15.9 (4.8) |
16.2 (4.9) |
16.6 (4.5) |
15.3 (4.9) |
0.46 |
| Distancing, mean (SD); | |||||
| pop norm 13.7 (3.51) |
11.7 (3.4) |
11.8 (3.5) |
12.3 (3.2) |
11.2 (3.5) |
0.36 |
| Psychosocial, mean (SD); | |||||
| pop norm 18.8 (4.10) |
16.6 (4.0) |
17.8 (4.1) |
17.3 (3.3) |
15.6 (4.3) |
0.04* |
| Family Illness, mean (SD); pop | |||||
| norm 16.1(2.98) |
13.5 (3.2) |
14.4 (2.7) |
13.4 (2.7) |
13.0 (3.6) |
0.24 |
| Health Behaviors | |||||
| Current smoker, n (%) |
27 (23.9) |
4 (15.4) |
8 (23.5) |
15 (28.3) |
0.49 |
| Nondrinker of alcohol, n (%) |
106 (93.8) |
25 (96.2) |
32 (94.1) |
49 (92.5) |
0.81 |
| Exercise >3 times per week, n (%) |
40 (45.4) |
11 (27.5) |
6 (15.0) |
23 (57.5) |
0.03* |
| Eat more when depressed, n (%) |
41 (36.6) |
8 (30.8) |
10 (29.4) |
23 (43.4) |
0.29 |
| ** SD: standard deviation; * All probabilities were p<0.05 after adjustment for age and parity; + Includes the population means and | |||||
| standard deviations for the family system assessment subscales; higher mean scores are indicative of more positive family functioning. | |||||
After adjusting for age and parity, the differences remained statistically significant (p<0.05) across the weight categories observed for the following variables: being overweight as a child; having an overweight parent or sibling; exercising more than three times per week; higher anxiety scores; poorer perception of physical health; and having negative psychosocial problems. xenical medication
Category: Weight Loss
Tags: African-American, mental health, obesity, psychosocial factors, women