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Abstract
Background: The sense of coherence (SOC) provide significant information on stress management
Aim : It was to investigate the possible association between SOC, obesity and gender
Material and Methods: Two hundred and fifty individuals visiting cosmetic centers were enrolled in this cross-sectional study. Participants were selected form a representative sample of the cosmetic centers in the area of Attica. The SOC scale was used as the research tool.
Results: Total SOC score per BMI classification was 136.13±20.48 for normal weight, 133.91 ±16.31 for overweight and 137.49±20.10 for obese women, without statistically significant difference between the three groups. Significant difference was detected in the subscale (meaningfulness) in females only: Overweight women had statistically lower values than normal weight women (39.25±5.81 vs 42.92± 6.42, p=0.022).
Conclusions: Overweight women may be a vulnerable population, exhibiting low sense of coherence and demanding psychological interventions in order to effectively cope with stress, especially during weight loss efforts.
Key words: Overweight, Sense Of Coherence, Women
Introduction
Sense of coherence (SOC) theory was developed in the late 1970s by the medical sociologist Aaron Antonovsky. It focuses on psychological health resources (Antonovsky 1996). SOC reflects a flexible orientation to life that promotes successful coping and not a fixed way of response to challenges. SOC is about dealing with stressors developing anxiety management skills. SOC exerts a significant influence on the QoL; the stronger the SOC, the better the QoL, while SOC is a valid tool in predicting a good QoL (Wolf & Ratner 1999; Eriksson & Lindstrom 2007;Skar et al.,2014).
SOC has a strong sociological element, since coping is not restricted to the person concerned, but it rather involves interaction between people and the society around them and refers to people integration into their social environments. SOC comprises a generalised life orientation to perceive and control the environment in a health promoting way.(Suominen & Lindstrom 2008)
In that context, conditions with a strong psychosocial element, as obesity may be related to SOC. (Von Lengerke et al., 2004; Von Lengerke et al., 2007;Fagermoen et al., 2015) Weight stigma poses a significant threat to psychological and physical health, resulting to poor physical health outcomes for obese individuals. Weight stigmatization has been proposed as a significant risk factor for depression, low self-esteem and body...