The role of anxiety sensitivity in daily physical activity and eating behavior.
Anxiety sensitivity (AS), or the fear of somatic arousal, has been linked to both maladaptive eating behavior as well as exercise avoidance in both self-report and laboratory-based experiments. The current pilot study sought to extend these finding to the naturalistic setting. A sample of 32 adults completed affect and dietary monitoring and wore actigraphs across a three-day monitoring period. Results indicated that high AS was associated with greater calorie consumption overall in women and less consumption in men, and high AS predicted an increase in calories consumed following participants' greatest increase in negative affect in both sexes. For physical activity, results indicated an AS by BMI interaction such that obese individuals with high AS engaged in less moderate-intensity physical activity, whereas the opposite was true for normal weight individuals. These results indicate that AS may represent a double-edged risk factor for obesity contributing to both exercise avoidance and calorie consumption.
Department of Psychology, Boston University, 648 Beacon Street, Boston, MA 02215, United States; McLean Hospital and Harvard Medical School, 115 Mill Street, Belmont, MA 02478, United States. Electronic address: bhearon@partners.org.
Bridget A
BA
Hearon
Sargent College, Boston University, 635 Commonwealth Ave., Boston, MA 02215, United States; Boston University School of Public Health, 715 Albany Street, Boston, MA 02118, United States.
Paula A
PA
Quatromoni
Department of Psychology, Boston University, 648 Beacon Street, Boston, MA 02215, United States.
Joshua L
JL
Mascoop
Department of Psychology, Boston University, 648 Beacon Street, Boston, MA 02215, United States.
Michael W
MW
Otto
D000328:Adult; D001007:Anxiety / Q000523:psychology*; D015992:Body Mass Index; D002149:Energy Intake; D015444:Exercise / Q000502:physiology / Q000523:psychology*; D005239:Fear; D005247:Feeding Behavior / Q000523:psychology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009765:Obesity / Q000523:psychology; D010865:Pilot Projects; D012307:Risk Factors; D057566:Self Report; D012737:Sex Factors
Anxiety sensitivity; Distress intolerance; Exercise; Obesity; Overeating