Negative eating and body attitudes are associated with increased daytime ambulatory blood pressure in healthy young women

Background and objectiveVarious psychosocial stressors have been associated with increased ambulatory blood pressure (ABP) and cortisol in middle-aged women. Given that many young women report negative eating/body attitudes, we examined whether these attitudes were associated with cortisol and ABP in a cross-sectional study.Methods120 non-obese, healthy women aged 19–35 completed questionnaires, measurement of 24-h urinary free cortisol (UFC), and 12-h daytime ABP. Main and interactive effects of eating/body attitudes (average Z-score of Eating/body attitude questionnaires split at zero) and current weight loss effort (yes/no) were examined by General Linear Modeling adjusted for covariates.ResultsWomen with negative eating/body attitudes were more likely to report current weight loss attempts (63% versus 21%, p < 0.001). Eating/body attitudes or weight loss effort did not have main or interactive effects on age, physical activity level, energy intakes, general stress (average Z-score of psychosocial stress questionnaires) or UFC. Body mass index was higher among those currently trying to lose weight but did not differ by eating/body attitudes. Significant main effects of eating/body attitudes were detected on ABP: diastolic ABP (73.2 ± 0.7 versus 70.3 ± 0.8 mm Hg, p = 0.011) and mean arterial pressure (87.3 ± 0.7 versus 84.9 ± 0.8 mm Hg, p = 0.032) were higher among women with negative versus neutral/positive eating/body attitudes. There were no weight loss effort main effects for ABP, or weight loss effort-by-Eating/body attitude interactions.ConclusionThis exploratory study suggests that more negative eating/body-related attitudes may be modestly associated with higher ABP independent of weight loss effort.

Research Highlights
► Women with negative eating/body attitudes had higher ambulatory blood pressure.
► Activity, energy intake, and body mass did not differ by eating/body attitude level.
► General stress and cortisol did not differ by eating/body attitude level.
► Differences in ambulatory blood pressure were independent of weight loss effort.