title: Emotional eating as a mediator between anxiety and cholesterol in population with overweight and hypertension.
abstract: Although the relationship between cholesterol and mood states (especially anxiety) has been well studied, few researches have included the role of eating styles in this relationship. This study explored the associations among eating styles, negative emotional symptoms, and levels of cholesterol (and other medical variables) in a population with hypertension and overweight or obesity, analyzing the possible mediation mechanisms involved. A cross-sectional study was conducted in 68 adults with hypertension and overweight/obesity, and stepwise multiple regression analysis and mediation analyses were carried out to test the hypothesis that eating styles mediate the relationship between negative emotional symptoms and cholesterol. Several significant correlations among age, anthropometric, medical, and psychological variables (eating styles and negative emotional symptoms) were found. There was a significant indirect effect of anxiety on total cholesterol and LDL cholesterol through emotional eating. Results suggest that emotional eating has a relevant role in the rise in total and LDL cholesterol, acting as a mediator in the relationship between anxiety and cholesterol. This finding could have important implications, since it introduces a new variable in the relationship between emotions and cholesterol and, therefore, changes the way of understanding this relationship, and of treating high cholesterol in a hypertensive sample.
authors.affiliation: a Facultad de Psicología , Universitat de València , Valencia , Spain.|b CAPES Foundation , Brasilia , Brazil.
authors.forename: Marinna S
authors.initials: MS
authors.lastname: Mensorio
authors.affiliation: a Facultad de Psicología , Universitat de València , Valencia , Spain.|c CIBER Fisiopatología Obesidad y Nutrición (CB06/03) , Instituto Carlos III , Madrid , Spain.
authors.forename: Ausiàs
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Cebolla
authors.affiliation: d Departamento de Medicina , Universidad CEU Cardenal Herrera , Valencia , Spain.
authors.forename: Juan Francisco
authors.initials: JF
authors.lastname: Lisón
authors.affiliation: d Departamento de Medicina , Universidad CEU Cardenal Herrera , Valencia , Spain.|e Hypertension and Vascular Risk Unit , Hospital de Sagunto , Sagunto , Spain.
authors.forename: Enrique
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Rodilla
authors.affiliation: f Primary Care Health Center , Quartell , Spain.
authors.forename: Gonzalo
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Palomar
authors.affiliation: a Facultad de Psicología , Universitat de València , Valencia , Spain.
authors.forename: Marta
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Miragall
authors.affiliation: a Facultad de Psicología , Universitat de València , Valencia , Spain.|c CIBER Fisiopatología Obesidad y Nutrición (CB06/03) , Instituto Carlos III , Madrid , Spain.
authors.forename: Rosa Maria
authors.initials: RM
authors.lastname: Baños
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000342:Affective Symptoms / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000523:psychology*; D000368:Aged; D001008:Anxiety Disorders / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000523:psychology*; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D005247:Feeding Behavior / Q000523:psychology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D006937:Hypercholesterolemia / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000523:psychology*; D006973:Hypertension / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000523:psychology*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D050177:Overweight / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000523:psychology*; D013223:Statistics as Topic; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires
keywords: Cholesterol; anxiety; emotional eating; hypertension; obesity