Subjective Social Status Is Associated with Dysregulated Eating Behaviors and Greater Body Mass Index in an Urban Predominantly Black and Low-Income Sample

Nutrients

Charles F. Gillespie¹  Abigail Powers¹  Jennifer S. Stevens¹  Vasiliki Michopoulos¹  Monika M. Stojek²  Paulina Wardawy² 

[1] Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Emory University School of Medicine, Atlanta, GA 30329, USA;Department of Social Sciences, University of Silesia, 40-007 Katowice, Poland;

关键词: obesity;    food addiction;    emotional eating;    subjective social status;    health inequities;   

DOI  :  10.3390/nu13113893

来源: DOAJ

【 摘 要 】

Background: Higher subjective social status (SSS) or a person’s perception of their social standing is related to better health outcomes, but few studies examined SSS in relation to obesity. Emotional eating and food addiction have been linked to obesity. Some studies indicated that manipulating SSS may lead to altered food intake, but the relationship between SSS and dysregulated eating, such as emotional eating and food addiction (FA), has not been examined. The goal of this study was to examine the associations between SSS in the community and the larger society, dysregulated eating (emotional eating and FA), and body mass index (BMI) in a majority racial minority sample. Methods: The participants (N = 89; 93% Black, 86% women, and 56% with obesity; 72% income lower than USD 2000), recruited from a publicly funded hospital in Atlanta, GA, completed the MacArthur Scale, Dutch Eating Behaviors Questionnaire, Yale Food Addiction Scale, Beck Depression Inventory, PTSD Symptom Checklist, and demographics questionnaire. Results: Twenty-two percent of the sample met the criteria for FA; those with FA had significantly higher BMI than those without (p = 0.018). In the hierarchical linear regression, the SSS community (but not in society) predicted higher severity of emotional eating (β = 0.26, p = 0.029) and FA (β = 0.30, p = 0.029), and higher BMI (β = 0.28, p = 0.046), independent from depression and PTSD symptoms. Conclusions: The findings indicate that, among Black individuals with predominantly low income in the U.S., perceived role in their community is associated with eating patterns and body mass. Given the small sample size, the results should be interpreted with caution.

【 授权许可】

Unknown