Predicting body mass index in women: The value of the psychological components of depression, anxiety, dietary restraint, and nutritional habits

Understanding the association between psychological affective disturbances and anthropometric parameters, including body mass index (BMI), is important. These issues may have potential preventive effects on weight reduction in relation to different aspects of women’s lifestyles and psychopathological states. The present study aimed to predict BMI based on psychological factors including; depression, anxiety, dietary restraint, and nutritional habits, in a sample of women with sedentary jobs in several Iranian governmental organizations.

Two hundred consecutive women aged over 25 years, working on sedentary or low standing works such as banker, teachers, and employee in the social security organizations in Isfahan, Iran, were entered the study. To assess the severity of depression and anxiety symptoms, the Beck Depression Inventory II and the State‑Trait Anxiety Inventory were used, respectively. To assess nutritional habits, a self‑administered questionnaire was designed, and to evaluate dietary restraint status, the Ruderman questionnaire was used. To find the co‑relationship between BMI and each of the psychological components, Pearson’s correlation coefficient test was applied.

To assess the relationship between BMI and each of the psychological components, a multivariate regression model was used. Only two components of nutritional habits (b = −0.19, P < 0.001) and dietary restraint (b = 0.51, P < 0.001) could effectively predict BMI in Iranian women; while depression and anxiety components had low predictive values for predicting BMI. In total, these four variables could predict 34% of the variance of the dependent indicator (BMI).

Nutritional habits and dietary restraint have high value for predicting BMI status in women aged more than 25 years working in sedentary jobs, while BMI status could not be predicted by assessing depression or anxiety severity.