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Assessing Life Stress: A Critical Priority in Obesity Research and Treatment
Author(s) -
Valderhaug Tone G.,
Slavich George M.
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
obesity
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.438
H-Index - 199
eISSN - 1930-739X
pISSN - 1930-7381
DOI - 10.1002/oby.22911
Subject(s) - obesity , medicine , severe obesity , disease , stress (linguistics) , physical therapy , gerontology , weight loss , linguistics , philosophy
Significant childhood adversity and chronic life stress are highly prevalent in patients with severe obesity. Such stress has been found to increase risk of adulthood obesity by up to 50%, and it can also substantially degrade the effectiveness of evidence‐based treatments for this chronic disease condition. Despite general appreciation of these facts, though, stress is not frequently measured in obesity research or routinely assessed during treatment for obesity or obesity‐related complications. To address this important issue, we describe several validated tools that can be used for assessing life stress and discuss how information obtained from these instruments can be integrated into obesity treatment and research. Given the documented relevance of stress for obesity, we argue that stress assessment and management should be included in clinical treatments for obesity and that stress should be routinely measured in studies examining the long‐term effects of obesity and obesity treatment.