Psychosocial correlates of overweight or obese status in Latino adults with coronary artery disease.

Overview

This study evaluated the psychosocial correlates of being overweight or obese among US born and immigrant Latino adults. Depressive symptoms were measured with the Center for Epidemiological Studies Depression Scale (CES-D10). Of the 177 participants, 64% were either overweight or obese, of which, 51% also had comorbid depressive symptoms. On bivariate analyses, these participants were younger (OR = 2.4, 95% CI = 1.5-5.2), female (OR = 2.5, 95% CI = 1.3-4.6), US born (OR = 6, 95% CI = 1.3-9.0), more likely to have lived in the US 15 or more years (OR = 2.6, 95% CI 1.3-5.1), reported fair or poor health, (OR = 3.8, 95% CI = 1.8-8.0), and were more likely to perceive greater stress (OR = 7.8, 95% CI = 3.4-18.0). On multivariate analysis, only perceived stress remained significant (OR = 6.5, 95% CI = 2.7-15.6). This suggests that interventions designed to reduce the epidemic of overweight and obesity in Latino adults may also need to address their psychosocial health.