THE INFLUENCE OF CHANGE IN MARITAL-STATUS ON WEIGHT CHANGE OVER ONE-YEAR

Marital status is an influence on body weight. Changes in marital stat us and body weight were examined in the National Survey of Personal He alth Practices and Consequences, a telephone survey of 2,436 adults in terviewed twice approximately 1 year apart. Two statistical methods fo r analyzing weight change were compared, and both produced similar res ults: regression analysis of weight change and regression analysis of weight at follow-up controlling for baseline weight. The findings reve aled that women who entered marriage had greater weight change than wo men who remained married. Analysis of weight gain and weight loss sepa rately showed that women who became married lost less weight than thos e who remained married, For men, there were no statistically significa nt relationships between marital change and weight change over a 1-yea r period. These findings support other literature showing that marital status plays a role in body weight changes. The results suggest gende r differences may exist in the rate of body weight change after marria ge, with more immediate changes in women than men.