@article {13465, title = {Psychological pathways explaining the prospective association between obesity and physiological dysregulation.}, journal = {Health Psychol}, volume = {42}, year = {2023}, pages = {472-484}, abstract = {

OBJECTIVE: Obesity is associated with a range of negative psychological conditions that may also affect physiological health. Across two studies, we tested whether a range of psychological measures explain why obesity is prospectively associated with physiological dysregulation, measured via clinical indicators of cardiovascular, immune system, and metabolic function.

METHOD: We used comparable 4-year follow-up representative longitudinal data of U.K. and U.S. older adults (>=50 years) from the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing (2008/2009-2012/2013; Study 1; n = 6,250) and the Health and Retirement Study (2008/2010-2012/2014; Study 2; n = 9,664). A diverse range of psychological measures (e.g., depressive symptoms, life satisfaction, weight stigma, positive affect) were tested as candidate mediators in Studies 1 (n = 14) and 2 (n = 21).

RESULTS: Obesity predicted physiological dysregulation at follow-up across both studies. In Study 1, only weight stigma (measured between baseline and follow-up) explained 37\% of the association between obesity and physiological dysregulation. In Study 2, only changes in weight stigma from baseline to follow-up (not baseline weight stigma) explained 13\% of the effect of obesity on future physiological dysregulation. Mediation by weight stigma in both studies was partially attenuated when changes in body mass index from baseline to follow-up were controlled for. No other psychological measures explained the association between obesity and physiological dysregulation in either study.

CONCLUSIONS: The prospective association between obesity and physiological dysregulation was largely not explained by psychological factors. However, experiencing weight stigma is associated with increased weight gain and this process may explain obesity-related declines in physiological health. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).

}, keywords = {Aged, Body Mass Index, Body Weight, Humans, Longitudinal Studies, Obesity, Social Stigma, Weight Gain}, issn = {1930-7810}, doi = {10.1037/hea0001284}, author = {Putra, I Gusti Ngurah Edi and Daly, Michael and Sutin, Angelina and Steptoe, Andrew and Robinson, Eric} } @article {10207, title = {Perceived weight discrimination and performance in five domains of cognitive function.}, journal = {Journal of Psychosomatic Research}, year = {2019}, month = {08/2019}, pages = {109793}, abstract = {

OBJECTIVE: Individuals who perceive unfair treatment because of their body weight have been found to be at increased risk of poor health outcomes, including risk of dementia. The present research examines the relation between weight discrimination and performance in five cognitive domains (episodic memory, speed-attention, visuospatial ability, language, numeric reasoning) and whether the associations extend to other common attributions for discrimination (age, gender, race).

METHOD: Participants (n = 2593) were from the Harmonized Cognitive Assessment Protocol (HCAP) sub-study of the Health and Retirement Study (HRS). HCAP participants completed a battery of cognitive tasks that measured the five focal cognitive domains. Participants reported on their perceived experiences with discrimination at the previous regular HRS assessment.

RESULTS: In models that accounted for demographic covariates and BMI, weight discrimination (reported by 6\% of participants) was associated with a two-fold increased risk of poor performance on tasks of episodic memory, speed-attention, visuospatial ability, and numeric reasoning. Body mass index was largely unrelated to performance in the five cognitive domains. The other attributions for discrimination were generally unrelated to cognition, but there were sex- and race-specific associations for gender and race discrimination, respectively.

CONCLUSIONS: The present study identified attribution- and domain-specific associations between discrimination and cognitive performance in older adulthood.

}, keywords = {cognitive aging, Neuropsychological tests, Psychosocial stressor, Weight stigma}, issn = {1879-1360}, doi = {10.1016/j.jpsychores.2019.109793}, url = {https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31439334}, author = {Angelina R Sutin and Yannick Stephan and Mary A Gerend and Robinson, Eric and Daly, Michael and Antonio Terracciano} } @article {9853, title = {Perceived weight discrimination and risk of incident dementia}, journal = {International Journal of Obesity}, year = {2018}, month = {Dec-09-2019}, abstract = {Body mass index (BMI) and obesity have a complex relation with risk of dementia that evolves over the lifespan. Research in other domains indicates that the social experience of body weight, not just BMI, is associated with worse health outcomes. The present research uses data from the Health and Retirement Study (N = 12,053) to test whether weight discrimination is associated with increased risk of dementia over an up to 10-year follow-up independent of BMI and other relevant clinical and behavioral risk factors. Participants who reported weight discrimination had a 40\% increased risk of incident dementia (Hazard Ratio = 1.40; 95\% Confidence Interval = 1.12{\textendash}1.74), controlling for age, sex, race, ethnicity, and education. The association between weight discrimination and incident dementia held controlling for BMI, diabetes, hypertension, depressive symptoms, smoking, physical activity, and genetic risk status. The present research indicates that the stigma associated with weight is associated with dementia risk independent from obesity. This research highlights that the detrimental effect of obesity on cognitive health in older adulthood may occur through the adverse social experience of body weight in addition to the biological consequences of excess weight. {\textcopyright} 2018, Springer Nature Limited. }, keywords = {BMI, Cognitive Ability, Dementia, Obesity, Stigma}, issn = {0307-0565}, doi = {10.1038/s41366-018-0211-1}, url = {http://www.nature.com/articles/s41366-018-0211-1http://www.nature.com/articles/s41366-018-0211-1.pdfhttp://www.nature.com/articles/s41366-018-0211-1.pdfhttp://www.nature.com/articles/s41366-018-0211-1}, author = {Angelina R Sutin and Yannick Stephan and Robinson, Eric and Daly, Michael and Antonio Terracciano} } @article {8700, title = {Perceived weight discrimination mediates the prospective relation between obesity and depressive symptoms in U.S. and U.K. adults.}, journal = {Health Psychol}, volume = {36}, year = {2017}, month = {2017 Feb}, pages = {112-121}, abstract = {

OBJECTIVE: Obesity has been shown to increase risk of depression. Persons with obesity experience discrimination because of their body weight. Across 3 studies, we tested for the first time whether experiencing (perceived) weight-based discrimination explains why obesity is prospectively associated with increases in depressive symptoms.

METHOD: Data from 3 studies, including the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing (2008/2009-2012/2013), the Health and Retirement Study (2006/2008-2010/2012), and Midlife in the United States (1995/1996-2004/2005), were used to examine associations between obesity, perceived weight discrimination, and depressive symptoms among 20,286 U.S. and U.K. adults.

RESULTS: Across all 3 studies, Class II and III obesity were reliably associated with increases in depressive symptoms from baseline to follow-up. Perceived weight-based discrimination predicted increases in depressive symptoms over time and mediated the prospective association between obesity and depressive symptoms in all 3 studies. Persons with Class II and III obesity were more likely to report experiencing weight-based discrimination, and this explained approximately 31\% of the obesity-related increase in depressive symptoms on average across the 3 studies.

CONCLUSION: In U.S. and U.K. samples, the prospective association between obesity (defined using body mass index) and increases in depressive symptoms in adulthood may in part be explained by perceived weight discrimination. (PsycINFO Database Record

}, keywords = {Adult, Aged, Body Weight, depression, Female, Humans, Longitudinal Studies, Male, Middle Aged, Obesity, Prejudice, Prospective Studies, United Kingdom, United States, Young Adult}, issn = {1930-7810}, doi = {10.1037/hea0000426}, author = {Robinson, Eric and Angelina R Sutin and Daly, Michael} }