Biographic and psychobehavioral influences on body mass index in a nursing sample

The purpose of this study was to investigate the direct influences of age, ethnicity, education, and number of children and the indirect influences of codependency and binge eating on increased body mass index (BMI). In this secondary analysis, data were collected from a convenience sample of 511 nurses who completed a codependency instrument and a personal inventory profile assessing the predictors included in the current path analysis study. The five predictors retained in the final BMI model demonstrated that binge eating, age, and Black ethnicity were positively correlated with BMI and that Asian ethnicity was negatively correlated with BMI. The relationship between binge eating and BMI was augmented by codependency but reduced by Black ethnicity. It was concluded that the path analysis supported hypotheses that Black nurses were overweight for reasons other than binge eating and that participants who scored high on the codependency instrument were more likely to binge eat.