Does Weight-Cycling Influence Illness Beliefs in Obesity? A Gender-Sensitive Approach

Table 3

Differences in subjective illness representations depending on weight-cycling.

		Weight-cyclers		Non-weight-cyclers		t	df		[CI]
		M	SD	M	SD
IPQ-R
Acute vs. chronic	Overall^a	19.63	3.61	18.22	3.96	3.86	431	0.001	0.37 [0.18; 0.56]
	Women^a	19.55	3.65	18.43	4.02	2.75	354	0.01	0.29 [0.08; 0.50]
	Men	20.63	3.12	17.67	3.76	2.89	75	0.01	0.80 [0.23; 1.37]
Constant vs. cyclical	Overall	12.03	2.98	11.14	3.18	3.00	431	<0.001	0.29 [0.10; 0.48]
	Women	12.10	2.95	11.54	3.22	1.71	354	0.09	0.18 [−0.03; 0.39]
	Men	11.13	3.24	10.08	2.84	1.27	75	0.21	0.35 [−0.20; 0.91]
Consequences	Overall	16.56	3.15	15.19	3.11	4.56	431	0.001	0.44 [0.25; 0.63]
	Women	16.41	3.15	15.51	3.12	2.69	354	0.01	0.29 [0.08; 0.50]
	Men	18.38	2.70	14.34	2.91	4.99	75	0.001	1.39 [0.79; 1.99]
Personal control	Overall	15.16	2.87	15.84	3.09	−2.36	431	0.02	−0.23 [−0.42; −0.04]
	Women	15.13	2.88	15.53	3.20	−1.24	354	0.22	−0.13 [−0.34; 0.08]
	Men	15.56	2.76	16.66	2.64	−1.46	75	0.15	−0.41 [−0.96; 0.15]
Treatment control	Overall	14.25	2.79	14.33	2.73	−0.32	431	0.75	−0.03 [−0.22; 1.16]
	Women	14.16	2.76	14.47	2.73	−1.04	354	0.30	−0.11 [−0.32; 0.10]
	Men	15.25	3.00	13.97	2.70	1.65	75	0.10	0.46 [−0.10; 1.02]
Sense of coherence	Overall^a	19.81	3.21	19.41	3.72	1.18	426	0.24	0.11 [−0.08; 0.30]
	Women	19.72	3.23	19.51	3.61	0.60	354	0.55	0.06 [−0.15; 0.27]
	Men	20.81	2.86	19.16	4.03	1.54	75	0.13	0.43 [−0.13; 0.99]
Emotional representation	Overall	20.44	4.41	18.99	4.73	3.30	431	<0.001	0.32 [0.13; 0.51]
	Women	20.46	4.49	18.99	4.11	1.03	354	0.30	0.11 [−0.10; 0.32]
	Men^a	20.13	3.28	16.36	5.25	3.55	38	<0.001	0.99 [0.41; 1.56]

Note. value (two-sided), interpretation according to hypotheses (one-sided); weight-cycling: number of previous dieting attempts, weight-cyclers: 10 times or more (overall N = 212, women N = 196, men N = 16), non-weight-cyclers: less than 10 times or none (overall N = 221, women N = 160, men N = 61); IPQ-R: Illness Perception Questionnaire-Revised, range of the subscales “acute vs. chronic,” “consequences,” “sense of coherence,” and “emotional representation” from 0 to 25, range of the subscales “constant vs. cyclical,” “personal control,” and “treatment control” from 0 to 20; ^aWelch correction.