Psycho-socio-biological correlates of moderate overweight in an industrial population

Abstract

This paper deals with the study of the relation between psycho-socio-biological factors and moderate overweight of subjects participating to the Belgian Heart Disease Prevention Project. The 8284 male subjects of the trial, working in 30 Belgian Flemish or French-speaking factories, aged 40-59 yr, were medically screened and asked to answer medical, social and psychological questionnaires. Base-line data are here analysed in regard to relative weight (mean relative weight and tertiles of relative weight). Stepwise discriminant analyses between tertile III and tertile I introducing psychological, social and bioclinical variables, showed that the 'obese' subjects (tertile III) are less frequently cigarette smokers, are less neurotic, are of a lower occupational class, are more frequently living in Wallonia (south of Belgium) and are more extravert compared to the 'lean' subjects (tertile I). Moreover, prospective studies are further needed to determine the causal or sequential effects on moderate overweight of the two psychological factors: neuroticism and extraversion. © 1978.Clinical TrialJournal ArticleRandomized Controlled TrialSCOPUS: ar.jinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishe