Relationship between BMI and emotion-handling capacity in an adult Finnish population: The Northern Finland Birth Cohort 1966

• Main Authors: Nurul Hanis Ramzi, Andrianos M Yiorkas, Sylvain Sebert, Sirkka Keinänen-Kiukaanniemi, Leena Ala-Mursula, Rauli Svento, Jari Jokelainen, Juha Veijola, Juha Auvinen, Jouko Miettunen, Terence M Dovey, Marjo-Riitta Järvelin, Alexandra I F Blakemore
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: unknown
• Subjects: Northern Finland
• Online Access: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0203660; https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0203660&type=printable

Background: Alexithymia, a difficulty in identifying and expressing emotions, has been associated with obesity and eating disorders in small-scale cross-sectional studies. Here, we assess the relationship between body mass index (BMI) and alexithymia in a large cohort of free-living Finnish adults over a 15-year period. Methods: Participants were drawn from the Northern Finnish Birth Cohort 1966 (NFBC1966). The 20-Item Toronto Alexithymia Scale (TAS-20) was used as a measure of alexithymia and was completed at the age of 31 years (31y: n = 4841), and 46 years (46y: n = 5404). BMI was recorded at both time points. Where data at both time points were available (n = 3274), the relationship between changes in BMI and TAS-20 over this time period was also investigated. Results: BMI was significantly and positively associated with TAS-20 score (p