| Obesity is nowadays considered as one of the problems impairing functioning and quality of life. Obesity is defined by body mass index (BMI), and most studies on the association between psychiatric
disorders and obesity have exclusively studied depression. But there are just a few researchers that have studied the association between obesity
and anxiety, and the mechanism of this association
remains unclear. This study aims to evaluate
the extent to which the association between
chronic pain and obesity are mediated by anxiety and moderated by coping strategies. The study population comprised 200 participants (100 male and 100 female) aged between 20 and70 (M=45) years old. All participants completed the Pain Self-Management Checklist, Beck Anxiety Inventory-II, and Lazarus Coping Skills Scale. The statistically significant paths were anxiety-pain, pain-obesity,
and anxiety-emotional coping strategies (p<0/005). In summary, chronic pain predicted obesity directly, and specific coping strategies (emotional coping strategies) did not moderate the relationship between
chronic pain, obesity and anxiety, but anxiety
mediated this relationship. |