Opposing emotion-mediated effects of stress on body mass index for healthy- and over-weight Latvians

Ieva Salina, Mara Grundmane, Edward Leigh Gibson

Research output: Contribution to conferenceAbstract

Abstract

European Health Psychology Society 35th Annual Conference (Aug. 23-27 2021, online)

Title: Opposing emotion-mediated effects of stress on body mass index for healthy- and over-weight Latvians

Ieva Salina; ieva.salins@gmail.com; Department of Sports and Nutrition, Rigas Stradins University, Latvia
Māra Grundmane; Mara.Grundmane@rsu.lv; Department of Sports and Nutrition, Rigas Stradins University, Latvia
E. Leigh Gibson; L.Gibson@roehampton.ac.uk, Department of Psychology, University of Roehampton, London; UK

Background: In Latvia, 26% of adults are obese. We investigated associations of stress, emotional eating, work demands and diet with body mass index (BMI) in working Latvian adults, and examined whether associations of stress and emotional eating with BMI vary with weight status.
Methods: A cross-sectional online survey assessed psychosocial experiences of work (Copenhagen Psychosocial Questionnaire III; COPSOQ), self-reported weight, height, weight changes, eating attitudes (DEBQ), appetite changes due to COVID-19, working situation, negative affect (DASS-21) and diet (EPIC FFQ) in Latvian adults. Participants were recruited by e-mailing companies, and through social media cooperating with Latvian influencers. Analyses included 874 currently working adults (808 women), mean age = 32.1 years, range 21 to 65. A stress scale was derived from relevant COPSOQ items. Mediation analyses tested whether associations between stress and BMI may be mediated by emotional eating, and separately for healthy-weight adults (HW: 18.5<BMI<25; n=575) vs. those with BMI>25 (OWOB; n=268).
Findings: For HW, higher stress predicted lower BMI (standardised coefficient β=-0.113, p=0.01) despite stress predicting higher emotional eating (DEBQ-E; β=0.347, p<0.0001), which in turn predicted higher BMI (indirect effect β=0.058, bootstrapped 95% CI, 0.028 to 0.091). By contrast, in OWOB, stress predicted higher BMI (β=0.133, p=0.029) and strongly predicted emotional eating (β=0.535, p<0.0001), which in turn fully mediated the effect of stress on BMI (indirect effect β=0.08, 0.008 to 0.154).
Discussion: Emotional eating is a risk factor for body weight gain in Latvian adults, but stress has independent suppressive effects on weight gain in healthy-weight adults only.
Original languageEnglish
Number of pages1
Publication statusAccepted/In press - 14 May 2021
Event35th Annual Conference of the European Health Psychology Society (EHPS) - Online, Bratislava, Slovakia
Duration: 23 Aug 202127 Aug 2021
Conference number: 35
http://2021.ehps.net

Conference

Conference35th Annual Conference of the European Health Psychology Society (EHPS)
Abbreviated titleEHPS 2021
Country/TerritorySlovakia
CityBratislava
Period23/08/2127/08/21
Internet address

Field of Science*

  • 3.3 Health sciences

Publication Type*

  • 3.4. Other publications in conference proceedings (including local)

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