Hostile men more likely to become obese

Hostile men are more likely to become obese than their less-hostile peers, according to a new study.

Hostile men are more likely to become obese than their less-hostile peers, according to a new study.

In the study, Dr. Hermann Nabi of Hopital Paul Brousse in Villejuif, France and his colleagues found that the more hostile a man's personality, the more his body mass index (BMI) increased over the following two decades, reports www.chinaview.cn.

BMI is the ratio of height to weight, used to determine if someone is within a normal weight range or is underweight, overweight or obese.

For the study, the researchers looked at data on 6,484 men and women participating in a UK study of socio-economic status and health.

Study participants ranged in age from 35 to 55 at the study's outset. They completed a standard scale measuring hostility at the beginning of the study, while their BMI was determined at four points over 19 years.

Initially results showed that both men and women with higher hostility levels also had higher BMIs. BMIs rose over time.
The researchers found that while the relationship between BMI and hostility remained constant for women, hostility seemed to accelerate weight gain over time in the men.