Depression, stress and body fat are associated with binge eating in a community sample of African American and Hispanic women.

OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this study was to examine the relationships among depressive symptoms, stress and severity of binge eating symptoms in a community sample of African American and Hispanic or Latina women. METHOD: Women (African American, n = 127; Hispanic or Latina, n = 44) completed measures of body composition, stress, depression, and binge eating. RESULTS: Scores on a depressive symptom scale indicated that 24.0 % of participants exhibited clinically significant levels of depressive symptoms. Mean binge eating scores were below the threshold for clinically diagnosed binge eating (12.99 ± 7.90). Mean stressful event scores were 25.86 ± 14.26 and the average stress impact score was 78.36 ± 55.43. Linear regression models found that body composition, stress impact score, and being classified as having clinically significant levels of depression were associated with severity of binge eating symptoms. CONCLUSION: Higher levels of percent body fat, a CES-D score ≥16 and higher WSI-Impact scores were associated with greater severity of binge eating symptoms.