Is normal weight obesity associated with worse mental health status and higher stress levels compared to normal body composition?
Normal weight obesity is independently associated with higher stress levels and psychiatric symptoms, particularly somatization.
Normal weight obesity (NWO) is a subtype of obesity characterized by a normal weight but a high body fat percentage. However, its research in terms of metabolic health, particularly its relationship with mental health remains understudied. This study aims to explore the relationship between NWO and mental health status to provide more reliable information for future scientific research and clinical practice. This study recruited healthy people who received health checkups at a tertiary hospital in Beijing. General information of the participants was collected through a self-administered questionnaire. The mental health status of participants were assessed using the Symptom Checklist-90 (SCL-90) and the Stress Self-Assessment Questionnaire-53 (SSQ-53). False Discovery Rate (FDR) correction was applied using the Benjamini–Hochberg procedure implemented in R software. Pearson or Spearman correlation coefficients were used for correlation analysis. The A-test validation method is also employed for correlation calculations. The physiological status was assessed by collecting hematological indices. Binary logistic regression analysis assessed influencing factors associated with psychiatric symptoms. 1181 healthy participants were included, with 824 (69.8%) having abnormal body composition and 357 (30.2%) normal. The somatization factor scores in the NWO group were substantially higher than those in the normal group (FDR-adjusted P-value < 0.10). Compared with the normal group, the NWO group had more serious psychological stress abnormalities (FDR-adjusted P-value < 0.10). Results of correlation analysis indicate there might be a correlation between psychiatric symptoms and stress levels in NWO participants. Stress-related hematological indices were significantly different from those of the normal group. Middle/older age and NWO are independent factors associated with higher somatization symptoms cross-sectionally (P-value < 0.05). The NWO participants suffered higher stress levels and were highly associated with psychiatric symptoms, especially somatization. There might be a correlation between psychiatric symptoms and stress levels in NWO participants. Middle/older age and NWO are associated with higher somatization symptoms cross-sectionally.
Che et al. (Fri,) studied this question.