Obesity among individuals with serious mental illness.
OBJECTIVE
To study the distribution and correlates of body mass index (BMI) among individuals with serious mental illness.


METHODS
A total of 169 participants were recruited from randomly selected out-patients receiving community-based psychiatric care and were interviewed with items from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) III. Their BMI was compared with that of 2404 matched individuals from the NHANES data set.


RESULTS
The distribution of BMI in the psychiatric sample significantly differed from that of the comparison group; 50% of women and 41% of men were obese compared with 27% and 20% in the comparison group. Within the psychiatric sample, higher BMI was associated with current hypertension and diabetes, a wish to weigh less, and reduced health-related functioning.


CONCLUSIONS
Obesity is more prevalent among individuals with serious mental illness than in demographically matched individuals from the US general population. Among persons with mental illness, obesity is associated with co-occurring health problems.
Dickerson
F B
FB
Sheppard Pratt Health System, Baltimore, MD 21204, USA. fdickerson@sheppardpratt.org
Brown
C H
CH
Kreyenbuhl
J A
JA
Fang
L
L
Goldberg
R W
RW
Wohlheiter
K
K
Dixon
L B
LB
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D015992:Body Mass Index; D004358:Drug Therapy / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D019964:Mood Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000188:drug therapy / Q000453:epidemiology*; D009765:Obesity / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000453:epidemiology*; D015995:Prevalence; D011619:Psychotropic Drugs / Q000627:therapeutic use; D012559:Schizophrenia / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000188:drug therapy / Q000453:epidemiology*; D012720:Severity of Illness Index
D011619:Psychotropic Drugs