Abstract
BackgroundCurrent treatments of obesity often fail to consider gender and psychological aspects, which are essential for weight loss and weight maintenance. The aim of our study was to analyze subjective illness representations (SIRs) of adults with obesity according to the Common-Sense Self-Regulation Model (CSM) by assessing their associations with weight-related variables and gender.MethodsData was collected via online self-assessment between April 2017 and March 2018. SIRs were operationalized by the revised Illness Perception Questionnaire (IPQ-R) and illness outcomes according to the CSM were defined as BMI, eating behaviour, physical wellbeing, bodyweight satisfaction, and shape concerns. The sample consisted of 427 adults (M = 42.2 years, SD = 10.9; 82% female) with obesity (BMI: M = 42.3 kg/m2, SD = 9.0). Student's t-tests and multiple hierarchical regression analyses were conducted with the control variables (age and BMI) and subjective illness representations and gender as independent variables.ResultsThe explanation of outcome variances was moderate to high (21-43%) except for restraint eating behaviour (10%). Subjective illness representations showed several significant associations with weight-related variables, especially timeline and emotional representations. Female gender was significantly associated with more restraint eating behaviour [F(1, 400) = 4.19, p < 0.001] and females had unfavourable values of the weight-related variables as well as a more cyclic [t(425) = 3.68, p < 0.001], and more emotional representation [t(100) = 5.17, p < 0.001] of their obesity.ConclusionThe results of this study indicate that gender and subjective illness representations, especially the emotional representation, play an important role for weight-related variables. Therefore, the assessment of SIRs may constitute an economic tool to identify specific individual deficits of self-regulation.
Highlights
In Germany, almost half of all women (47%) with a low socioeconomic status have obesity (BMI greater or equal to 30 kg/m2 and abnormal fat distribution) compared to 34% of the men in this group [1, 2]
Male participants perceived their obesity significantly more consistently (IdI = 0.47) and the emotional representation was significantly more favourable (IdI = 0.74). This result means that women reported more negative emotions, such as anger, worry, fear, or depression, associated with their obesity than men
This study lends further support to previous research findings [18] to the effect that self-regulation, subjective illness representations (SIRs), and especially gender play an important role in weight-related variables
Summary
In Germany, almost half of all women (47%) with a low socioeconomic status have obesity (BMI greater or equal to 30 kg/m2 and abnormal fat distribution) compared to 34% of the men in this group [1, 2]. Gender-specific differences are found in the choice of food [8], diet habits [9], body dissatisfaction, and weightrelated attitudes [10, 11]. The latter cited study demonstrated that men with obesity were less accurate than women with obesity in their perception of weight and were less likely to try to reduce their weight. The aim of our study was to analyze subjective illness representations (SIRs) of adults with obesity according to the Common-Sense Self-Regulation Model (CSM) by assessing their associations with weight-related variables and gender
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