Effects of emotional eating and short sleep duration on weight gain in female employees.

OBJECTIVE:: To investigate whether there is an interaction between emotional eating and sleep duration on weight change and whether this effect is stronger in women. DESIGN:: One-year follow-up study. SETTING:: Banking environment. PARTICIPANTS:: 553 women and 911 men. MEASUREMENTS AND RESULTS:: Self-reported emotional eating and body mass index (BMI) at T1 were measured in 2008, and sleep duration and BMI at follow-up (T2) were measured in 2009. A significant emotional eating-sleep duration interaction on BMI change was found in women, but not in men. CONCLUSIONS:: The finding that the highest weight gain was found in women who combined short sleep duration with high emotional eating - both of them are markers of (chronic) distress-suggests a possible role of poor psychological health and (chronic) stress in this relationship. Copyright © 2014 by American College of Occupational and Environmental Medicine