Open AccessEvidence of Commingling in Human Eating Behavior
Author(s) -
Allison David B.,
Heshka Stanley,
Gorman Fbernard S.,
Heymsfield Steven B.
Publication year - 1993
Publication title -
obesity research
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 1550-8528
pISSN - 1071-7323
DOI - 10.1002/j.1550-8528.1993.tb00011.x
Subject(s) - skewness , multivariate statistics , unimodality , covariance , multivariate normal distribution , statistic , statistics , mixture model , trait , mathematics , psychology , disinhibition , variance (accounting) , computer science , psychiatry , programming language , accounting , business
This investigation tested whether distributions of certain aspects of eating behavior were consistent with the notion of a “mixture model;” that is, two or more distinct Commingled component distributions, consistent with the possibility of major gene action. Undergraduates (n=901) completed self‐report trait measures of hunger, disinhibition, and dietary restraint. Variables were residualized for gender and age and transformed to remove skewness. Residualized transformed distributions were tested for departure from unimodality with Hartigan's (14) dip statistic. The distributions of all three aspects of eating behavior were significantly non‐unimodal. Next, component multivariate normal distributions were estimated via maximum likelihood. Likelihood ratio tests were employed to compare nested models. A mixture of four distributions with unequal variance‐covariance matrices tit significantly better than any more parsimonious model. In sum, these data strongly suggest that the distributions of several measures of eating behavior are composed of four component distributions. This finding is consistent with the possibility of major gene effects for eating behavior.