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Relative body weight and psychological distress in late life: observations of gender and race comparisons.

Schieman S, McMullen T, Swan M

Department of Sociology, University of Toronto, 725 Spadina Ave., Toronto, ON M5S 2J4, Canada. scott.schieman@utoronto.ca.

OBJECTIVE: This study examines the association between relative body weight (measured with body mass index; BMI) and multiple forms of psychological distress and whether those associations are contingent on gender and race. METHOD: Interviews were conducted in 2001-2002 with persons 65 years and older in the District of Columbia and adjoining Maryland counties (N = 1,152). BMI is associated (a) positively with depression, anger, and physical symptoms among White women; (b) positively with physical symptoms among Black women and men; and (c) negatively with anxiety among White men. RESULTS: Tests for gender by race interactions find significant contrasts between White women and men when depression, anxiety, and physical symptoms are considered as outcomes; contrasts between White and Black women are significant for anger. DISCUSSION: Results underscore the importance of gender by race interactions, multiple forms of distress in analyses of effects of BMI, and the role of negative self-evaluations and health difficulties as explanations.

Published 6 April 2007 in J Aging Health, 19(2): 286-312.
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