How obesity, satisfaction and where you live are linked

A new study has revealed that one's community plays a key role in determining how satisfied they are in their life.

By: Editorial Team | | Updated: June 2, 2014 3:31 pm

A new study has revealed that one’s community plays a key role in determining how satisfied they are in their life. Also Read - Ganesh Chaturthi 2020: 4 reasons an eco-friendly Ganesha is good for you

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Scientists said that their most interesting finding was that, in US counties where obesity is particularly prevalent, being obese has very little negative effect on one’s life satisfaction. Also Read - Smoking in pregnancy raises infant's obesity risk: Study

Study co-author Philip M. Pendergast, from University of Colorado-Boulder, said that being ‘normal weight’ has little benefit in counties where obesity is especially common, which shows the importance of looking like the people around you when it comes to satisfaction with life.

Pendergast said that where obesity is more common, there is less difference among obese, severely obese, and non-obese individuals’ life satisfaction, but where obesity is less common, the difference in life satisfaction between the obese (including the severely obese) and non-obese is greater.

According to the researchers, before accounting for where people live, severely obese men and women have 29 percent and 43 percent lower odds, respectively, than their non-obese counterparts of reporting that they are “very satisfied” with their lives.

However, the story is very different among people in counties where obesity is common, the scientists found that among men, about 79 percent of the gap in the probability of severely obese and non-obese individuals reporting that they are ‘very satisfied’ with their lives is eliminated if one moves from a county in the 5th percentile for obesity in the US (with an obesity rate of 24 percent) to a county in the 95th percentile (with a rate of 46 percent). In the same scenario among women, the gap is reduced by about 60 percent.

The study is published in the Journal of Health and Social Behavior.

What is obesity?

Obesity refers to increased body fat but it is not same as being overweight. A person who is overweight need not be obese but a person who is obese is overweight. Overweight is the term used for a person who weighs more. The weight can be muscle weight, bone weight or fat weight. But a person is said to be obese when he/she consumes more number of calories than the number of calories used by the body. If your Body Mass Index or BMI (calculated by dividing height by weight) is more than 30, then you are obese. Obesity is becoming a global epidemic not only in developed nations but also in developing nations like India. Obesity is linked to a host of lifestyle disorders like diabetes, heart diseases, hypertension and stroke. Easy availability of sugars and fats, messing with our body clocks and an increased sedentary lifestyle are responsible for obesity. Being overweight and obesity are the fifth leading risk for global deaths with at least 2.8 million adults dying each year due to them. In this section, you’ll find articles like the need to control obesity, hazards of being obese, childhood obesity etc. You can also look for ways to fight obesity, for ex: exercises for obese people, bariatric surgery, possibility of eating obesity without healthy diet and exercise, healthy food option to lose weight quickly.

With inputs from ANI

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Published : June 2, 2014 3:30 pm | Updated:June 2, 2014 3:31 pm

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