Abstract
BACKGROUND: We sought to investigate the relationship between social violence and adult overweight/obesity and the role of common mental disorders (CMD) in mediating this relationship. METHODS: A cross-sectional study was conducted from January to June 2016 in Tunisia. Participants were selected from randomly selected Primary Health Care Centers. The Arabic version of the Adverse Childhood Experiences-International Questionnaire (ACE-IQ) was used. RESULTS: A total of 2120 participants were included. Women exposed to social ACEs had higher rates of overweight/obesity than men (13.5 versus 9.5%; P = 0.004). For women, statistically significant partial mediation effects of CMD were observed for exposure to community violence (% mediated = 17.7%). For men, partial mediation was found for the exposure to peer violence (% mediated = 12.5%). CONCLUSION: Our results provide evidence of the independent increase of overweight/obesity after exposure to social ACEs. Efforts to uncover and address underlying trauma in health care settings may increase the effectiveness of obesity interventions.
Original language | English (US) |
---|---|
Pages (from-to) | 502-510 |
Number of pages | 9 |
Journal | Journal of public health (Oxford, England) |
Volume | 41 |
Issue number | 3 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - Sep 30 2019 |
Keywords
- Tunisia
- adverse childhood experiences
- common mental disorders
- obesity
- overweight
- social violence
PubMed: MeSH publication types
- Journal Article
- Comparative Study