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Physical versus psychosocial measures of influences on human obesity. Comment on Dhurandhar et al.

International Journal of Obesity volume 39, pages 1177–1178 (2015)Cite this article

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Eminent colleagues in research on energy balance and human obesity argue that research participants’ reports of their own intake and physical activity should be replaced by monitoring instruments that generate data automatically.1 This proposal has two fundamental flaws. Both deficiencies can be overcome by objective verbal data developed in psychological science.

The first flaw is that the behaviour to be observed is liable to be changed by awareness that it is being monitored. Participants in energy exchange research who think that they might be regarded as unhealthily heavy are likely to try to eat less and to exercise more. Furthermore, such efforts are fully justifiable. Indeed, it would be unethical to try to persuade a participant to maintain habits that risk the disease and distress to which obesity can contribute. Attaching instruments to measure intake or movement may produce at least as much change as asking for a diary of weighed intakes or categories of physical activity.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Psychology, University of Sussex, Brighton, UK

    D A Booth

  2. Medical Sciences Research Centre, Autonomous University of the State of Mexico, Toluca City, Mexico

    A Laguna-Camacho

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  1. D A Booth
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  2. A Laguna-Camacho
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Correspondence to D A Booth.

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Booth, D., Laguna-Camacho, A. Physical versus psychosocial measures of influences on human obesity. Comment on Dhurandhar et al.. Int J Obes 39, 1177–1178 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1038/ijo.2015.62

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