The obesity It is one of the most widespread health problems today. It is not a disease, but a risk factor for many diseases (diabetes, hypertension, heart problems, etc.), and therefore it is a physical condition that is trying to prevent and treat, knowing the causes and creating programs to educate to the population so that modify eating habits and physical activity.
One of the possible causes of obesity in women could be, according to a recent study, the have been physically abused as children by someone close, being the risk of being obese until 35% higher than in not battered girls.
How did they do the study
To carry out the study, published in the journal Obesity Facts, researchers from the University of Toronto, in Canada, analyzed 12,590 cases of people who responded to a community health survey in 2005. Of all the people studied, 2,787 were obese and 976 explained that they had suffered some form of abuse or abuse physical by someone close in childhood or adolescence.
Results of the study
After adjusting the results by age and ethnicity, in addition to other possible confounding factors such as socioeconomic status or mental health status, they observed that Physical abuse in childhood was associated with a 35% increased chance of being obese, when talking about women. If we talk about men who were mistreated as children, this tendency does not occur with the same intensity, since the risk of being obese in case of child abuse is 12% higher.
The relationship between one thing and another is explained, according to the researchers, by depression and anxiety that women who suffered physical abuse during childhood may suffer. In the case of men, the cause being the same, they explain that they are not sure why there is less risk, but they think that it could be due to the gender difference when looking for adaptation mechanisms.
In any case, whatever the reason that women suffer more than men, what is clear is that what happens in children's childhood has a lot to do with the type of adult person that will be. In fact, the least worrying thing is that a girl ends up being or not obese. The worrying thing is that be it by dragging depression and anxiety problems from childhood, rooted in their way of being and living, in their personality and in their way of facing life, and a solution much more difficult than being overweight.
