Fig. 2: Stress-induced increases in negative affect are larger in participants with a high body mass index (BMI).
From: Stress-induced brain responses are associated with BMI in women
a Estimates for the effects of sex, BMI, and their interaction from regression models of multi-level stress responses (subjective response: n = 189 participants, cardio-vascular response: n = 165 participants, and cortisol response: n = 186 participants). Estimates are t-values from linear multiple regressions adjusted for linear effects of age, presence of a psychiatric diagnosis, and cortisol response to intravenous catheter placement. Green asterisks indicate significant results (p < 0.05). b Scatterplots showing associations of n = 186 participants between BMI and stress-induced negative affect after the task (both sexes: b = 1.48, t(182) = 2.00, p = 0.047) and after the following 30-min rest (both sexes: b = 1.18, t(182) = 2.35, p = 0.019) separated for males and females to depict potential sex differences. Associations with BMI were significant in n = 120 females (T8), but not in n = 69 males. While models account for covariates, the data is shown unadjusted in the scatterplots. ∆Cort T6 = Cortisol increase after the end of the task (T6) compared to baseline (T0). Shaded areas depict 95% confidence intervals of the association of unadjusted data. ∆Cort T8 = Cortisol increase after rest (T8) compared to baseline (T0). ∆HR PostStress = Difference in heart rate between task-blocks in the PostStress and PreStress condition, ∆HR Stress = Difference in heart rate between task-block in the PostStress and PreStress condition, ∆Neg T6 = Difference in state negative affect directly after the task (T6) compared to before the task (T3), ∆Pos T6 = Difference in state positive affect directly after the task (T6) compared to before the task (T3). Source data are provided in the Supplementary Data 1.
