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. 2024 Aug 27;16(17):2874.
doi: 10.3390/nu16172874.

Body Size Measurements Grouped Independently of Common Clinical Measures of Metabolic Health: An Exploratory Factor Analysis

Katie M Ellison  1   2 , Aseel El Zein  2 , Chelsi Reynolds  2 , Sarah E Ehrlicher  1 , Julianne G Clina  3 , Tsz-Kiu Chui  1 , Kimberly A Smith  2 , James O Hill  1 , Holly R Wyatt  1 , R Drew Sayer  2
Affiliations

Body Size Measurements Grouped Independently of Common Clinical Measures of Metabolic Health: An Exploratory Factor Analysis

Katie M Ellison et al. Nutrients. .

Abstract

Background: Obesity is commonly aggregated with indices of metabolic health. Proponents of body positivity approaches question whether body size is a determinant of health and well-being. Our objective was to conduct an exploratory factor analysis (EFA) to determine if body size measurements factor load with or independent of metabolic health measures.

Methods: The EFA was conducted on n= 249 adults using baseline data from four weight loss trials (Sample 1: n = 40; Sample 2: n = 52; Sample 3: n = 53; Sample 4: n = 104). An EFA of nine items (systolic blood pressure [SBP], diastolic blood pressure [DBP], hemoglobin A1c [HbA1c], HDL-cholesterol [HDL], LDL-cholesterol [LDL], total cholesterol [TC], body mass index [BMI], body fat percent BF%], and waist circumference [WC]) was conducted with oblique rotation.

Results: Three factors were retained, which produced a model explaining 87.5% of the variance. Six items loaded strongly (>0.8) under three components and were selected for retention (Factor 1: LDL and TC; Factor 2: BMI and WC; Factor 3: SBP and DBP).

Conclusion: Body size measures loaded separately from measures of metabolic health and metabolic health were further split into lipid- and blood pressure-focused factors. These results support weight-neutral interventions to improve overall health and well-being.

Keywords: body positivity; cardiometabolic disease; exploratory factor analysis; obesity.

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Conflict of interest statement

J.O.H. is a member of the General Mills Health and Wellness Advisory Committee, for which he receives an honorarium. H.R.W. and J.O.H. are co-owners of the State of Slim weight management program, which was the intervention in the affiliated study, NCT04014296. H.R.W. and R.D.S. report speaking fees from the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association. The other authors declared no conflicts of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Scree plot of initial four-factor solution.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Scree plot of final three-factor solution.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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