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NEGATIVE LIFE EVENTS MAY BE IMPORTANT CONTRIBUTOR TO WEIGHT GAIN IN MIDDLE-AGED WOMEN | |
| Contact: Tené T. Lewis, PhD Phone: (312) 563-2722 Email: tene_lewis@rush.edu Embargoed until: March 3, 2004 |
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Vancouver, BC, Canada - Negative life events may be an important contributor to weight gain in middle-aged women, independent of their effects on behavioral risk factors such as smoking, diet and exercise. This is the finding of a study from researchers from Rush University Medical Center, Chicago, and the University of Pittsburgh, who presented the results from the Study of Women's Health Across the Nation (SWAN) at the American Psychosomatic Society Annual Meeting, held March 2-5 in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. The authors examined the longitudinal association between negative life events and weight gain over four years in 2,017 African-American and Caucasian women aged 42-52, from the Detroit, Chicago, Pittsburgh and Boston sites of the Study of Women's Health Across the Nation (SWAN). Lead author Tené T. Lewis, Ph.D., says "the research was designed to find out if psychological stress is associated with weight gain over time in middle-aged women. Many people believe that this is the case; however, few studies have actually examined this issue". Lewis and colleagues found that women who reported more negative life events (such as the death of a relative, loss of a job, divorce, etc…) at the beginning of the study were also more likely to gain weight over the four-year follow-up. These findings persisted even after taking into account a number of other factors, including age, menopausal status, smoking, diet and exercise. The effects of negative life events on weight gain were similar for women of both races and all educational levels. "Women who are under high levels of stress may be particularly susceptible to weight gain over time", Lewis states. "We don't yet know why this is, because some of the "usual suspects", such as diet and exercise, don't appear to be playing as large a role as we expected". The authors suggest that reducing the emotional impact of life events and improving coping techniques may prevent the weight gain associated with mid-life aging. The SWAN study is funded by the National Institutes on Aging and Nursing Research and the NIH Office of Research on Women's Health. Tené T. Lewis, Ph.D., Susan Everson-Rose, Ph.D., Kelly Karavolos, Ph.D., Lynda Powell, Ph.D., Deidre Wesley, M.P.H. Preventive Medicine, Rush University Medical Center, Chicago, IL, Karen Matthews, Ph.D., Psychiatry, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA. | |
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Psychosomatic Medicine is the official peer-reviewed journal of the American Psychosomatic Society, published bimonthly. For information about the journal, contact Vicki White, Managing Editor for Manuscript Production,
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