Association of psychological stress with body mass index among 20 – 49 years old persons with fertility intention in Shenzhen city

  Objective  To explore the association between psychological stress and body mass index (BMI) among the persons with fertility intention.

  Methods  The 625 010 (307 002 male and 318 008 female) participants of the study were 20 – 49 years old individuals having pre-parental eugenic health examinations free of charge during the period from January 2013 to December 2019 in Shenzhen city, Guangdong province. Questionnaire interview was conducted among the participants to collect information on demographics and psychological condition. According to the Guidelines of Overweight and Obesity Prevention and Control for Chinese Adults, the BMI is less than 18.5 for underweight, 18.5 – 23.9 for normal weight, 24.0 – 27.9 for overweight, and more than 28.0 for obesity. Unconditional logistic regression model was used to analyze the association of psychological stress with BMI.

  Results  Among all the participants, 384 963 (61.59%) were with normal weight and the number (proportion) of underweight, overweight, and obesity were 77 692 (12.43%) , 130 086 (20.81%), and 32 269 (5.16%), respectively. There were 80 892 (12.94%) of the participants were assessed as having psychological stress. Logistic regression analysis showed that the participants with psychological stress were at increased risks of underweight (odds ratio OR = 1.04, 95% confidence interval 95%CI: 1.01 – 1.07), overweight (OR = 1.07, 95%CI: 1.05 – 1.10), and obesity (OR = 1.18, 95%CI: 1.14 – 1.23) compared to those without the stress. In age- and gender-specific subgroup analysis, the psychological stress-related risk increment of overweight and obesity were not significant for the participants aged 40 – 49 years; the female participants were at higher increased risks of psychological stress-related overweight and obesity than the male participants; but the male participants were at higher increased risks of psychological stress-related obesity and underweight than the female participants.

  Conclusion  Psychological stress is associated with increased risk of abnormal BMI and there are age and gender differences for the psychological stress-related BMI abnormality among 20 – 49 years old people with fertility intention.