Managing stress with food and alcohol consumption connected with faster lifelong weight gain

Stress is associated with obesity through several mechanisms, including coping methods used in stressful situations. However, long-term prospective studies investigating stress-induced eating and drinking in parallel and their relationships with weight are scarce.
Researchers at the Finnish Institute for Health and Welfare examined the prevalence of stress-induced eating and drinking and their associations with body mass index (BMI) among women and men during a 30-year follow-up, as well as BMI trajectories from early adulthood to middle age. The findings are published in the journal Psychology & Health.
Eating and alcohol use in stress management have not previously been studied in parallel. The study is part of the Stress, development and mental health (TAM) project, a follow-up study in which people in one age cohort in Tampere have been monitored through questionnaires since 1983 at the ages of 16, 22, 32, 42, and 52. Participants coping methods were evaluated by asking how common it was for them to act in certain ways when they encountered stressful situations. The associations between coping methods and BMI trajectories were examined.
The prevalence of stress-induced eating was higher among women than men throughout the follow-up, whereas men aged 22–32 used alcohol more frequently than women as means of stress management, but after this, stress-related use of alcohol was equally common among men and women.
Stress-induced drinking was more common among men at 22 and 32 years of age. Stress-induced eating was associated with higher BMI at all ages among women, and from the age of 32 among men. Eating as a persistent coping method over the life course was associated with a higher and faster growth rate of BMI trajectories. Stress-induced drinking was associated with higher BMI in middle age, and with a faster growth of BMI among men.
The study concludes that effective, appropriate stress management may be one essential factor in preventing weight gain in the adult population.
Source: Elena Rosenqvist, Olli Kiviruusu, Noora Berg & Hanna Konttinen (2023) Stress-induced eating and drinking and their associations with weight among women and men during 30-year follow-up, Psychology & Health.