Childhood abuse victimization, stress-related eating, and weight status in young women.
OBJECTIVE
Abuse in childhood predicts stress-related overeating and excess weight gain in young women. We investigated whether two stress-related overeating behaviors--binge eating and coping-motivated eating--explain childhood abuse associations with weight status in young women.


METHODS
Analyses included 4377 women participating in the Growing Up Today Study, a longitudinal cohort of youth enrolled at age 9 to 14 years. We used marginal structural models to estimate the effects of abuse before age 11 years on weight status at age 22 to 29 years with and without adjustment for binge eating and coping-motivated eating.


RESULTS
Women with severe physical, sexual, and emotional abuse had early adult body mass indexes (BMIs) that were 0.74 kg/m(2) (95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.15-1.33), 0.69 (95% CI: -0.46 to 1.83), and 0.85 (95% CI: 0.24-1.45) kg/m(2) higher, respectively, than those without abuse. Adjustment for coping-motivated eating attenuated the excess BMI associated with severe physical abuse, but no other important attenuations were found.


CONCLUSIONS
Physical, sexual, and emotional abuse before age 11 years were associated with higher early adult weight status, although the sexual abuse estimate was not statistically significant. Evidence for a role of stress-related eating in abuse--BMI associations was limited and inconsistent across abuse types.
Division of Epidemiology and Community Health, University of Minnesota School of Public Health, Minneapolis; Channing Division of Network Medicine, Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA. Electronic address: smmason@umn.edu.
Susan M
SM
Mason
Division of Epidemiology and Community Health, University of Minnesota School of Public Health, Minneapolis.
Richard F
RF
MacLehose
Division of Adolescent and Young Adult Medicine, Boston Children's Hospital, Boston, MA; Department of Social and Behavioral Sciences, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, MA.
Sabra L
SL
Katz-Wise
Channing Division of Network Medicine, Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA; Division of Adolescent and Young Adult Medicine, Boston Children's Hospital, Boston, MA; Department of Social and Behavioral Sciences, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, MA.
S Bryn
SB
Austin
Division of Epidemiology and Community Health, University of Minnesota School of Public Health, Minneapolis.
Dianne
D
Neumark-Sztainer
Division of Epidemiology and Community Health, University of Minnesota School of Public Health, Minneapolis.
Bernard L
BL
Harlow
Connors Center for Women's Health and Gender Biology, Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA; Department of Epidemiology, Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, MA.
Janet W
JW
Rich-Edwards
D000223:Adaptation, Psychological; D000328:Adult; D054523:Adult Survivors of Child Abuse / Q000523:psychology / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D015992:Body Mass Index; D001835:Body Weight; D002032:Bulimia / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000523:psychology; D005247:Feeding Behavior; D001068:Feeding and Eating Disorders / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000523:psychology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D009765:Obesity / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000523:psychology; D050177:Overweight / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000523:psychology; D012307:Risk Factors; D012720:Severity of Illness Index; D015430:Weight Gain
Body mass index; Child abuse; Eating disorders; Hyperphagia; Obesity; Overweight; Psychological stress; Violence