Nurses -- Psychosocial Factors ; Body Mass Index ; Bulimia ; Codependency

Correlational Studies; Cross Sectional Studies; Path Analysis; Conceptual Framework; Age Factors; Race Factors; Female; Human

The aim of this correlational, cross sectional study was to investigate the hypothesized direct and indirect influences of selected biographic and psychosocial variables of increased body mass index (BMI) in a sample of 511 nurses. Path analysis guided the research design, and data analysis of this study. Escape theory provided the rationale for the predictive ordering of variables. This study analyzed a preexisting data set collected by the researcher during a nursing codependency instrument development project.After conducting the Path Analysis, age, binge eating, black racial status, and Asian racial status were the four paths retained in the final BMI model. To determine the adequacy of the trimmed model, the incremental F ratio was conducted to compare the R2 of .16 from the full model and the R2 of .15 from the trimmed model. The difference between these two R 2 outcomes was nonsignificant and indicated that the six path trimmed model parsimoniously explained the variance in BMI with no loss in predictive power. The results from the path analysis supported the hypotheses that binge eating, age and black racial status are positively correlated with BMI, and Asian racial status is negatively correlated with BMI. Binge eating augmented the relationship between codependency and BMI, but reduced the relationship between black racial status and BMI. Thus, supporting the conclusion that blacks in the sample are overweight for reasons other than binge eating. Unlike women in the general population, in nurses, increased education and increased number of children were not useful predictors of BMI.

9780493565934

UMI Order AAI3042860

20030912

20150923

109876590