do psychosocial and behavior factors mediate sociodemographic effects?
GROUND: The increasing prevalence of obesity and obesity-related conditions in primary care settings challenges the health care system. Thus, we used available baseline data from an on-going clinical trial to examine the biopsychosocial characteristics of overweight and obese primary care patients. The primary research objective was to ascertain whether theoretically important psychosocial and behavioral variables mediate the empirical relationships between sociodemographic factors and body mass index (BMI). METHODS: Overweight or obese primary care patients (n=665) enrolled in an on-going trial of a cognitive-behavioral obesity intervention provided baseline sociodemographic, psychosocial, nutritional, physical activity, and anthropometric data that were analyzed via multiple regression. RESULTS: Lower educational attainment was associated with a higher BMI after controlling for decisional balance, social support, self-efficacy, energy intake, and energy expenditure (P<0.05). In contr
