Sudhakar Jha
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Written By: Sudhakar Jha | Published : September 26, 2018 9:48 PM IST
The results suggested that there was a consistent causal effect of higher BMI on lower mental wellbeing © Shutterstock
Ever thought that overweight or obesity could affect your mental health too? Well a new study just found out that higher BMI may have harmful consequences for both mental and physical health.
This new study explored the impact of different aspects of physical health, like body weight, heart health and blood pressure, to check if individuals with poorer physical health were less happy and less satisfied with their lives.
Previous studies have shown that individuals who are happier and more satisfied with their lives tend to have better physical health and live longer than those who have lower mental wellbeing. But didn't check on which one affects the other.
Using a technique called Mendelian randomization, the researchers asked whether poorer physical health causes lower mental wellbeing, or whether individuals with lower mental wellbeing are more likely to go on to have later problems with their physical health.
This technique provided the team of researchers evidence of the direction of causation by using genetic variants that have been associated with physical health and mental wellbeing. The research team was able to test 11 measures of physical health, including coronary artery disease, heart attack, cholesterol, blood pressure, body fat and Body Mass Index (BMI).
At the end of the study, the results suggested that there was a consistent causal effect of higher BMI on lower mental wellbeing. There was little evidence that the other physical health traits were leading to less happiness and life satisfaction.
The same pattern of results was seen in a follow-up analysis using the UK Biobank cohort of over 3,00,000 individuals aged between 40 to 70 years old. The authors looked at different aspects of life satisfaction and found that the key impact of higher BMI was on lower satisfaction with health.
Published in the Journal of The BMJ, the team also looked at whether mental wellbeing had any effects on the physical health traits but found little evidence reverse method.
Dr Claire Haworth, the senior author, said in the study, "Results so far highlight the pressing need to tackle the obesity crisis because higher BMI is causing the population to be less happy and less satisfied with their lives. This information could be immediately useful to clinicians encouraging patients to maintain a healthy weight."
