Personal history of dieting and family history of obesity are unrelated: implications for understanding weight gain proneness

Abstract

Identifying predictors of future weight gain is important in obesity prevention efforts. Both family history of obesity and personal dieting history have been established as predictors of future weight gain; however, it is unknown if they are independent or overlapping predictors. The purpose of this study was to examine the degree of overlap between these two predictors using cross-sectional data. Baseline data from four studies were examined separately and in combination for a total of 561 female participants, and analyses were conducted to examine parent anthropometric variables by dieting status within and across studies. All participants were female university students between the ages of 17 and 30. For each study, as well as for the entire sample combined, parent anthropometric variables were examined by dieting status using factorial ANOVAs. No meaningful pattern was found when examining parent anthropometric variables by dieting status, which suggests that the two risk factors are largely independent. This suggests that the processes associated with the development of future weight gain by each variable are different; therefore, future research should use a longitudinal study to test the hypothesis that using both variables to predict future weight gain would account for more variance than using either variable alone.

Keywords: Dieting; Obesity; Prediction; Risk factors; Weight gain.