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Binge eating and self-esteem predict body image dissatisfaction among obese men and women seeking bariatric surgery.

Grilo CM, Masheb RM, Brody M, Burke-Martindale CH, Rothschild BS

Department of Psychiatry, Yale Psychiatric Research, Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, Connecticut 06520, USA. Carlos.grilo@yale.edu

OBJECTIVE: We examined body image dissatisfaction (BID) in extremely obese men and women seeking bariatric surgery. METHODS: The following predictors of BID were examined in a consecutive series of 260 (44 men and 216 women) gastric bypass candidates: gender, ethnicity, body mass index (BMI), age at onset of overweight, childhood maltreatment, binge eating, depression, and self-esteem. RESULTS: Women reported significantly higher levels of BID than men. Stepwise multiple regression analyses revealed that gender, binge eating, and self-esteem levels accounted for 41% of the variance in BID. In predicting BID levels separately by gender, binge eating and self-esteem accounted for 56% of the variance among men and for 33% of the variance among women. DISCUSSION: Among bariatric surgery candidates, women reported significantly higher BID than men. Our findings suggest the importance of binge eating and lower self-esteem for understanding BID in both men and women who are extremely obese.

Published 2 May 2005 in Int J Eat Disord, 37(4): 347-51.
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