Impact of employment status and work setting on body weight and health behaviors among people with obesity.
Jaime P Almandoz, Luyu Xie, Sanaa Tejani and 4 others
PMID 38143405WHAT IT FOUND
Adults with obesity who worked from home partially gained more weight than those working from home completely.
Unemployment was linked to higher weight, but this association disappeared after adjusting for demographics. Stress, depression, and poor eating habits were strong predictors of weight gain.
Key findings
01Participants who worked from home partially gained 5.4% body weight, while those who worked from home completely lost a mean of 0.3% body weight.
02After adjusting for age, race, gender, education, and insurance status, employment status itself was not significantly associated with weight change percentage.
03Stress, depression, increased takeout/comfort food consumption, overeating, and binge eating were significant predictors of weight gain, while healthy eating was protective.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for OTs
Read the rest of this summary
You get three full summaries a month, free, and we do not ask for a card. Search, the TL;DRs and your library stay unlimited either way.
What it does not show
The study is cross-sectional, so it cannot prove that work setting caused weight change. Data was self-reported, which is prone to misreporting. Participants were recruited from a single weight management center, limiting generalizability to the general population. The study could not account for differences in occupational stress levels.
Declared interests
The authors declare no conflict of interest.
The easy way to misread this
Do not assume that working from home is inherently bad for weight. In this study, those working from home completely actually lost a small amount of weight on average. The risk was specifically associated with the hybrid/partial work-from-home schedule.