Intimate partner violence, depression and overweight/obesity

There is an urgent need to improve our understanding and develop effective interventions to abate the obesity epidemic in the United States. It is increasingly evident that the etiology of obesity is multi-factorial. Merely viewing obesity as the consequence of an energy imbalance, with energy intake exceeding energy expenditure negates the interrelationships among the multiple levels of influence including individual, family, and community. Victims exposed to intimate partner violence (IPV) could not only suffer from physical injuries, but also from serious psychological effects including depression and other behavior changes which might resort to attitudes, such as overeating, subsequently causing overweight/obesity. Studies have indicated the following relationships: (1) overweight/obesity and depression are significantly related; (2) IPV and depression are significantly related; and (3) overweight/obesity and IPV are indirectly related. The mechanisms of the relationship between IPV and overweight/obesity are less conclusive. However, behavior changes including depression have been considered as one of the major factors.