Background

Obesity is a known risk factor for various chronic conditions, as well as mental health disorders. However, there have been few studies on weight change and mental health according to obesity. This study was performed to elucidate the association between weight changes and mental health according to obesity in middle-aged women.

Methods

Data from the Korean National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (2014, 2016, 2018), which included 3953 women aged 40 to 59, were used in this study. After excluding those who had chronic conditions possibly affecting weight change, 2964 women were included in the study. The associations between weight changes and mental health, including perceived stress, depressed mood surveyed by the patient health questionnaire-9(PHQ-9), and current depressive disorder were analyzed.

Results

Weight change in non-obese and obese women was associated with poorer mental health, including perceived stress and depressed mood (p<0.05), although the significance disappeared in covariates-adjusted analysis in obese women. Both non-obese and obese women with weight gain had higher perceived stress than women with weight loss, while in the PHQ-9 scores, higher scores were observed in non-obese women with weight gain, and in obese women with weight loss.

Limitations

Our study could not define causality because this was a cross-sectional study. And the information on body weight change was obtained by self-reported questionnaires.

Conclusions

Our study suggested that in relatively healthy middle-aged Korean women, weight change was a significant factor associated with mental health, but obesity itself was not.

中文翻译：

---

相对肥胖的中年韩国女性的肥胖引起的体重变化和心理健康：2014年，2016年，2018年韩国国民健康与营养调查

背景

肥胖是各种慢性病以及精神健康疾病的已知危险因素。但是，关于肥胖引起的体重变化和心理健康的研究很少。进行这项研究是为了阐明中年女性肥胖引起的体重变化与心理健康之间的关系。

方法

这项研究使用了韩国全国健康与营养检查调查（2014、2016、2018）的数据，其中包括3953名年龄在40至59岁之间的女性。在排除那些可能影响体重变化的慢性病患者之后，该研究纳入了2964名女性。分析了体重变化与心理健康之间的关联，包括知觉压力，通过患者健康问卷9（PHQ-9）调查的抑郁情绪和当前的抑郁症。

结果

非肥胖和肥胖妇女的体重变化与较弱的心理健康状况有关，包括感觉到的压力和情绪低落（p <0.05），尽管在肥胖妇女的协变量校正分析中，其重要性已消失。体重增加的非肥胖女性和肥胖女性均比体重减轻的女性具有更高的感知压力，而在PHQ-9评分中，体重增加的非肥胖女性和体重减轻的肥胖女性的评分更高。

局限性

我们的研究无法定义因果关系，因为这是一项横断面研究。体重变化的信息是通过自我报告的问卷获得的。

结论

我们的研究表明，在相对健康的中年韩国妇女中，体重变化是与心理健康相关的重要因素，而肥胖本身却不是。