engleski

Depressive symptoms, eating patterns, shame and guilt due to body and body weight in obese patients

Introduction: Obesity is affecting a large number of world populations and its proportions reach epidemic levels. Depression is a disease that is often associated with obesity. Obesity as well as depression are a major public health problems, presenting a risk of developing other diseases and increasing mortality rates. Research suggests that obese people are more likely to feel shame and guilt due to their body and weight. The aims of this study were: 1) to examine the presence of depressive symptoms in obese patients ; 2) to examine the contribution of eating patterns and shame and guilt due to body weight in explaining depressive symptoms in obese patients. Methods: The research was conducted on a clinical sample of obese patients from the daily hospital for diabetes, endocrinology and metabolic diseases in the Clinical Hospital Centre Rijeka. A total of 71 patients (50 women and 21 men) were enrolled in the study. The average age of participants was 45.20 years (SD=11.13 ; ranged from 26 to 71 years), and the average body mass index was 41.97 kg/m2 (SD=8.85 ; ranged from 29 to 71 kg/m2). Participants completed the Weight and Body Related Shame and Guilt Scale (WEB-SG ; Conradt et al., 2007), the Three-Factor Eating Questionnaire R-18 (TFEQ R-18 ; Karlsson, Persson, Sjoèstroèm, & Sullivan, 2000), and the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale (CES-D ; Radloff, 1977). Results: In the present study, 49.3% of subjects showed significantly elevated levels of depressive symptoms. Sex differences in shame, guilt, eating patterns and depressive symptoms were not obtained in this sample of obese patients. Emotional and uncontrollable eating were positively associated with symptoms of depression, and cognitive restraint as eating pattern was negatively associated with depressive symptoms in obese patients. Cognitive restraint pattern of eating and shame due to body and body weight were significant predictors of depressive symptoms in obese patients. Conclusion: Negative emotions such as shame and certain patterns of eating are associated with more depressive symptoms in obese people. These results suggest that it is important that the experts working with obese patients consider the emotions experienced by obese people as well as their eating patterns. Educating patients about their emotions and eating patterns should be an integral part of weight loss and weight maintenance programs, especially in depressed patients.

obesity, depressive symptoms, shame and guilt due to body weight, eating patterns, emotional eating, uncontrolled eating, cognitive restraint eating

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