Depression mediates the relationship between alexithymia and obesity in the Northern Finland Birth Cohort 1966 (NFBC1966).

BACKGROUND: The fact that a complex relationship exists between alexithymia and body mass index (BMI) is well established, but the underlying mechanisms remain poorly understood. Here, we explore the relationship between alexithymia and depressive symptoms in relation to adiposity measures, including the direct and indirect effect of alexithymia and depressive symptoms on obesity over a 15-year time-period, in the Northern Finland Birth Cohort 1966 (NFBC1966). METHODS: The study included individuals from the Northern Finland Birth Cohort 1966 (NFBC1966) who had available data for adiposity measures (body mass index and waist-to-hip ratio), alexithymia (measured by the 20-Item Toronto Alexithymia Scale: TAS-20), depressive symptoms (measured by the 13-item depression subscale of Hopkins Symptom Checklist: HSCL-13) at age of 31 years (n = 4773) and 46 years (n = 4431). Pearson's (r) correlation, and multiple linear regression were used to investigate the relationships between alexithymia, depressive symptoms, and adiposity measures. The potential mediating role of depressive symptoms was examined via Hayes' procedure (PROCESS). RESULTS: Positive correlations were confirmed between adiposity measures (BMI and WHR) and the TAS-20 score (and its subscale), but not between obesity and HSCL-13 score. The strongest correlation was between the DIF (difficulty identifying feelings) subscale of the TAS-20 and HSCL-13 at both time points (31 y: r(3013) = 0.41, p < 0.01, 46 y: r(3013) = 0.43, p < 0.01). Depressive symptoms completely (z = 2.55 (±0.00003), p = 0.01) and partly (z = 2.16 (±0.0001), p = 0.03) mediated the alexithymia-obesity relationship over the 15-year time-period. LIMITATIONS: Other psychological and environmental factors such as interoception, dietary intake and physical activities may also play a role as a potential mediating factor in alexithymia-obesity relationship. CONCLUSIONS: Our findings provide additional insights of theoretical framework of depressive symptoms mediation effect in the relationship between alexithymia and obesity. Alexithymia and depression should, therefore, be considered in the design of future clinical obesity research.

Did the Finnish depression of the early 1990s have a silver lining? The effect of unemployment on long-term physical activity.

This paper studies the impact of long-term unemployment on physical activity. We examined the effects 6 and 15 years following a severe business cycle downturn in Finland over the period 1991-1994. The study sample comprised residents of Northern Finland. The unemployed individuals were 23-26 years old during the downturn. Physical activity, measured by MET minutes and meeting WHO guidelines, was higher 15 years later among those people who experienced the longest periods of unemployment in 1991-1994. Physical activity was somewhat lower among people with relatively shorter periods of unemployment.

Leisure-time physical activity is associated with socio-economic status beyond income - Cross-sectional survey of the Northern Finland Birth Cohort 1966 study.

We apply neoclassical economic modelling augmented with behavioral aspects to provide a detailed empirical investigation into indicators of socio-economic status (SES) as determinants of leisure-time physical activity. We utilize the data from the Northern Finland Birth Cohort 1966 obtained at the most recent time point during 2012-2014 (response rate 67 %), at which time the participants were approximately 46 years old. Our final study sample consists of 3,335 employed participants (1520 men, 1815 women; 32.3 % of the target population). We apply logistic regression methods for estimating how the probability of being physically active is related to various indicators of socio-economic status, taking into account physical activity at work and individual lifestyle, family- and health-related factors. Overall, our findings show that belonging to a higher socio-economic group, whether defined by income level, educational attainment, or occupational status, is associated with higher leisure-time physical activity. However, when we analyze different socio-economic groups, defined in terms of education, income and occupation, separately, we find that income is not a significant determinant of leisure-time physical activity within any of the particular SES groups. Further, we find that leisure-time physical activity is negatively associated with higher screen time (i.e., watching TV and sitting at a computer), and other aspects of unhealthy lifestyle, and positively associated with self-assessed health. In addition, we note that proxies for individual motivational factors and childhood physical activity, such as the grade point average and the grade achieved in physical education when leaving basic education, are strongly correlated with leisure-time physical activity in middle age among men, but not among women. Our results are in line with behavioral economics reasoning that social comparisons and environments affect behaviors. We emphasize the importance of considering behavioral economic factors when designing policies to promote physical activity.

Relationship between BMI and emotion-handling capacity in an adult Finnish population: The Northern Finland Birth Cohort 1966.

BACKGROUND: Alexithymia, a difficulty in identifying and expressing emotions, has been associated with obesity and eating disorders in small-scale cross-sectional studies. Here, we assess the relationship between body mass index (BMI) and alexithymia in a large cohort of free-living Finnish adults over a 15-year period. METHODS: Participants were drawn from the Northern Finnish Birth Cohort 1966 (NFBC1966). The 20-Item Toronto Alexithymia Scale (TAS-20) was used as a measure of alexithymia and was completed at the age of 31 years (31y: n = 4841), and 46 years (46y: n = 5404). BMI was recorded at both time points. Where data at both time points were available (n = 3274), the relationship between changes in BMI and TAS-20 over this time period was also investigated. RESULTS: BMI was significantly and positively associated with TAS-20 score (p<0.0001, both at 31 years and at 46 years of ages). The association remained statistically significant after adjustment for potential confounders (sex, marital status and several socio-economic indicators). In individuals who experienced the greatest change in BMI (in either direction) over the 15-year period, there was a modest mean increase in TAS-20 score. CONCLUSIONS: Our data revealed that TAS-20 score was correlated with and co-varied with body mass status. We suggest that future clinical research should consider the role of alexithymia in obesity. Further investigation of this relationship is warranted to ensure that the needs of obese subjects with undiagnosed alexithymia are considered in the design of weight management programmes.