Evidence map›Paper›PMID 30894189›Full record

ArticleThe international journal of behavioral nutrition and physical activity2019

Depression, emotional eating and long-term weight changes: a population-based prospective study.

Hanna Konttinen, Tatjana van Strien, Satu Männistö, Pekka Jousilahti, Ari Haukkala

Registry-linked trialOpen access · goldAbstract read
PubMed Full text at PMC Publisher
In one paragraph

Article in The international journal of behavioral nutrition and physical activity, 2019. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. It is linked to trial NCT07315763 (Polyvagal Informed Group Skills Training for Body Awareness and Managing Emotions for People Living With Obesity), which is not on this map. Cited by 162 papers, 10 of them syntheses that pooled it.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
162citing papers in PubMed, 10 pooled it
30.4field-weighted citation impact, top 1% of its field
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

NCT07315763 nanot yet recruitingnot on this mapstarted 2026, after this paper: background citation

Polyvagal Informed Group Skills Training for Body Awareness and Managing Emotions for People Living With Obesity

TypeinterventionalSponsorRoyal Holloway UniversityRan2026 to 2026Enrolled10ConditionsBody Awareness, Obesity, Emotional RegulationArmsPolyvagal informed skills training group
3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

162 citing papers in PubMed, 10 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 316 citations in OpenAlex.

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  3. Emotional Eating Interventions for Adults Living With Overweight and Obesity: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Behaviour Change Techniques.Journal of human nutrition and dietetics : the official journal of the British Dietetic Association · 2025
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102 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.

4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

5 authors at 3 institutions in 3 countries.

Hanna KonttinenDepartment of Food and Nutrition, P.O. Box 66, 00014 University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland. hanna.konttinen@helsinki.fi.ORCID 0000-0002-6001-4418
Tatjana van StrienBehavioural Science Institute, Radboud University Nijmegen, P.O. Box 9104, 6500 HE, Nijmegen, The Netherlands.
Satu MännistöDepartment of Public Health Solutions, National Institute for Health and Welfare, P.O. Box 30, 00271, Helsinki, Finland.
Pekka JousilahtiDepartment of Public Health Solutions, National Institute for Health and Welfare, P.O. Box 30, 00271, Helsinki, Finland.
Ari HaukkalaFaculty of Social Sciences, P.O. Box 54, 00014 University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland.
Finnish Institute for Health and Welfare · FIUniversity of Helsinki · FIRadboud University Nijmegen · NL

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

backgroundEmotional eating (i.e. eating in response to negative emotions) has been suggested to be one mechanism linking depression and subsequent development of obesity. However, studies have rarely examined this mediation effect in a prospective setting and its dependence on other factors linked to stress and its management. We used a population-based prospective cohort of adults and aimed to examine 1) whether emotional eating mediated the associations between depression and 7-year change in body mass index (BMI) and waist circumference (WC), and 2) whether gender, age, night sleep duration or physical activity moderated these associations.

methodsParticipants were Finnish 25- to 74-year-olds who attended the DILGOM study at baseline in 2007 and follow-up in 2014. At baseline (n = 5024), height, weight and WC were measured in a health examination. At follow-up (n = 3735), height, weight and WC were based on measured or self-reported information. Depression (Center for Epidemiological Studies - Depression Scale), emotional eating (Three-Factor Eating Questionnaire-R18), physical activity and night sleep duration were self-reported. Age- and gender-adjusted structural equation models with full information maximum likelihood estimator were used in the analyses.

resultsDepression and emotional eating were positively associated and they both predicted higher 7-year increase in BMI (R

conclusionsOur findings offer support for the hypothesis that emotional eating is one behavioural mechanism between depression and development of obesity and abdominal obesity. Moreover, adults with a combination of shorter night sleep duration and higher emotional eating may be particularly vulnerable to weight gain. Future research should examine the clinical significance of our observations by tailoring weight management programs according to these characteristics.

Indexed as

AdultAgedDepressionEatingEmotionsFeeding BehaviorFinlandHumansMiddle AgedProspective StudiesSurveys and QuestionnairesWeight GainDepressive symptomsEmotional eatingLongitudinal studyMediationModerationObesityPhysical activitySleepThree-factor eating questionnaireWeight gain

Identifiers

PMID30894189
PMCPMC6427874
OpenAlexW2923007378

What OpenQuestion holds

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Registered trials

Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.