engleski

Women's waists increase whereas men's decrease under chronic high stress

Introduction: Psychological stress may contribute to abdominal obesity through hormonal mechanisms but few longitudinal studies have examined the relationship. Methods: In 2008, we conducted a five-year follow-up of a population based survey of adult men (N=931) and women (N=2, 025) in Croatia. High stress was defined as 20% percentile of participants with highest scores on the Perceived Stress Scale (>23 men, >24 women) and was considered chronic if reported as high in both waves of the survey. Results: Over five years, mean waist circumference (WC) increased both in men (from 100.15±12.55 cm to 101.29±13.59 cm) and women (from 91.88±14.18 cm to 95.27±14.44 cm). Chronic high stress was reported by 53 (5.69%) men and 84 (4.15%) women. All analyses were controlled for age and baseline body mass index. Change in WC did not differ between groups defined according to smoking status, sugar consumption, or education level. Men with high alcohol consumption (>14 units/week) had a smaller increase in WC compared with men who consumed less alcohol (P=0.027). Women who assessed their socioeconomic status as better than average had a higher increase in WC compared with average or below average (P=0.031). In the final model, only sex (P<0.001) and interaction of stress and sex (P=0.031) were significant. All unstressed participants gained in WC over time. Among participants reporting chronic high stress, women's WC increased more than that of other women, whereas men's WC decreased. Conclusions: Response to chronic high perceived stress may be sex-specific in our population: women's waists increase whereas men's decrease.

abdominal obesity; psychological stress; cardiovascular diseases; sex characteristics

nije evidentirano