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Eating Behavior and Weight Change in Healthy Postmenopausal Women: Results of a 4-Year Longitudinal Study

¹ Jean Mayer USDA Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging at Tufts University, Boston, Massachusetts.
² Donald W. Reynolds Department of Geriatrics, University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, Little Rock.
³ U.S. Army Research Institute of Environmental Medicine, Natick, Massachusetts.

Address correspondence and reprint requests to Susan B. Roberts, PhD, Energy Metabolism Laboratory, Jean Mayer USDA Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging at Tufts University, 711 Washington St., Boston, MA 02111. E-mail: susan.roberts{at}tufts.edu

Abstract

Background. The association of psychological eating behavior constructs with overweight and obesity during early adult life and middle age has been documented in several studies. However, the association of eating behavior with unexplained weight change in old age is relatively unexplored.

Methods. Body weight, eating behavior (dietary restraint, disinhibition, and hunger as assessed by the Eating Inventory), reported dietary intake, and physical activity level were assessed at baseline in 36 nonobese postmenopausal women aged 61.3 ± 3.1 years (mean ± standard deviation). Measurements were repeated 4.4 ± 0.9 years later, and changes in body weight were examined in relation to baseline and follow-up eating behavior scores, reported dietary intake, and physical activity level.

Results. Participants had no major changes in health or lifestyle characteristics over the study interval. Weight change ranged from –7.5 to +5.8 kg (mean –0.3 ± 3.5 kg), and there were no significant changes in reported dietary intake. Mean hunger score (calculated as the mean of baseline and follow-up hunger score) predicted weight change per year over the study period (bivariate r = 0.386, p =.020), even in statistical models adjusted for mean dietary intake variables (partial r = 0.658, p =.003). Restraint, disinhibition, and physical activity level did not predict weight change.

Conclusions. Reported hunger assessed by the Eating Inventory was associated with unintentional weight change in healthy postmenopausal women. The Eating Inventory questionnaire may provide a clinically useful tool for identifying older individuals at risk of undesirable weight change, and particularly unintentional weight loss, a factor strongly associated with increased morbidity and premature death in this population.