title: Structural equation modeling of associations among taste-related risk factors, taste functioning, and adiposity.
abstract: Variation in taste perception and exposure to risk factors of taste alterations have been independently linked with elevated adiposity. Using a laboratory database, taste-adiposity associations were modeled and examined for whether taste functioning mediates the association between taste-related risk factors and adiposity.
  
  
  
  Healthy women (n = 407, 35.5 ± 16.9 y) self-reported histories of risk factors of altered taste functioning (tonsillectomy, multiple ear infections, head trauma) and were assessed for taste functioning (tongue-tip and whole-mouth intensities of quinine and salt) and density of taste papillae. Twenty-four percent had elevated waist circumferences; thirty-nine percent had overweight or obesity. Using structural equation modeling, direct and indirect associations between taste-related risk factors, taste functioning, and adiposity were tested.
  
  
  
  In models with good fit, elevated central adiposity was explained directly by history of risk factors (tonsillectomy, multiple ear infections) and directly by lower taste functioning (lower tongue-tip taste function, lower papillae density). Risk factors of taste alterations were significantly associated with lower taste functioning, with taste mediating the association between head trauma and reduced adiposity.
  
  
  
  This large laboratory-based study supports associations between taste-related risk factors, taste functioning, and adiposity. These findings need to be confirmed with other population-based studies, including the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey 2013-2014 taste data.
authors.affiliation: Department of Allied Health Sciences, University of Connecticut, Storrs, Connecticut, USA.|Epidemiology Branch, Division of Intramural Population Health Research, Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland, USA.
authors.forename: Shristi
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Rawal
authors.affiliation: Department of Allied Health Sciences, University of Connecticut, Storrs, Connecticut, USA.
authors.forename: Tania B
authors.initials: TB
authors.lastname: Huedo-Medina
authors.affiliation: Epidemiology and Statistics Program, National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland, USA.
authors.forename: Howard J
authors.initials: HJ
authors.lastname: Hoffman
authors.affiliation: Department of Community Medicine and Health Care, University of Connecticut School of Medicine, Farmington, Connecticut, USA.
authors.forename: Helen
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Swede
authors.affiliation: Department of Allied Health Sciences, University of Connecticut, Storrs, Connecticut, USA.
authors.forename: Valerie B
authors.initials: VB
authors.lastname: Duffy
mesh_terms: D050154:Adiposity / Q000502:physiology*; D000328:Adult; D005260:Female; D064368:Healthy Volunteers; D006801:Humans; D008875:Middle Aged; D015233:Models, Statistical; D009749:Nutrition Surveys; D009765:Obesity / Q000209:etiology*; D012307:Risk Factors; D013649:Taste / Q000502:physiology*; D055697:Taste Perception / Q000502:physiology*; D055105:Waist Circumference