Hostility and Trajectories of Body Mass Index Over 19 Years: The Whitehall II Study

摘要

The authors examined the associations of hostility measured in adulthood with subsequent body mass indexn(BMI; weight (kg)/height (m)n2n) assessed at 4 time points over a 19-year period (1985–2004) in a United Kingdomncohort study. A total of 6,484 participants (4,494 men and 1,990 women) aged 35–55 years at baseline (1985–n1988) completed the Cook-Medley Hostility Scale. BMI was assessed upon medical examination in phases 1n(1985–1988), 3 (1991–1993), 5 (1997–1999), and 7 (2002–2004). Mixed-models analyses of repeated measuresnshowed clear evidence of increasing BMI over follow-up in both sexes. In women, higher levels of hostility werenassociated with higher BMI at baseline, and this effect remained constant throughout the follow-up period. In men,nhostility levels were also strongly associated with BMI at baseline, but results for the interaction between time andnhostility also suggested that this association increased over time, with persons in the highest quartile of hostilityngaining an excess of 0.016 units (P ¼ 0.023) annually over the follow-up period as compared with persons in thenlowest quartile. The authors conclude that the difference in BMI as a function of hostility levels in men is not stablenover time.