Nurul Hanis Ramzi, Juha Auvinen, Juha Veijola, Jouko Miettunen, Leena Ala-Mursula, Sylvain Sebert, Sirkka Keinänen-Kiukaanniemi, Rauli Svento, Jari Jokelainen, Fotios Drenos, Terence M Dovey, Marjo-Riitta Järvelin, Alexandra I F Blakemore
BACKGROUND: The fact that a complex relationship exists between alexithymia and body mass index (BMI) is well established, but the underlying mechanisms remain poorly understood. Here, we explore the relationship between alexithymia and depressive symptoms in relation to adiposity measures, including the direct and indirect effect of alexithymia and depressive symptoms on obesity over a 15-year time-period, in the Northern Finland Birth Cohort 1966 (NFBC1966). METHODS: The study included individuals from the Northern Finland Birth Cohort 1966 (NFBC1966) who had available data for adiposity measures (body mass index and waist-to-hip ratio), alexithymia (measured by the 20-Item Toronto Alexithymia Scale: TAS-20), depressive symptoms (measured by the 13-item depression subscale of Hopkins Symptom Checklist: HSCL-13) at age of 31 years (n = 4773) and 46 years (n = 4431)...
March 16, 2023: Journal of Affective Disorders