A Prospective Study of Psychological Distress and Weight Status in Adolescents/Young Adults

The obesity-psychological distress relationship remains controversial. This study aims to assess whether adolescents' psychological distress was associated with body mass index (BMI) class membership determined by latent class analysis. Distress (anxiety, depression) and BMI were measured annually for 4 years in 1,528 adolescents. Growth mixture modeling derived latent BMI trajectory classes for models with 2-11 classes. The relationship of distress to class membership was examined in the best-fitting model using vector generalized linear regression. BMI trajectories were basically flat. The five-class model [normal weight (48.8%), overweight (36.7%), obese who become overweight (3.7%), obese (9.4%), and severely obese (1.3%)] was the preferred model (Bayesian information criterion = 22789.2, df = 31; rho = 0.84). Greater distress was associated with higher baseline BMI and, therefore, class membership. Psychological distress is associated with higher BMI class during adolescence. To determine whether distress "leads" to greater weight gain may require studies of younger populations.