Adults enrolled in a weight management programme fall into distinct groups based on their mental health and eating behaviour traits, and those groups differ markedly in how much they weigh when they start treatment, according to a new study published in Eating and Weight Disorders – Studies on Anorexia, Bulimia and Obesity.
The research, led by Tala Al Ajmi and colleagues including Amy L. Ahern and Cara Ruggiero, used data from the SWiM-C trial, a weight management intervention. The team wanted to understand why weight management interventions work so unevenly across individuals, and turned to a person-centred statistical approach called latent profile analysis (LPA) to look for hidden subgroups within the study population.
In this study, the indicator variables were validated baseline measures of mental health challenges and eating behaviour traits (EBTs). The analysis included 263 participants who had weight data at both baseline and 12-month follow-up.
The sample was predominantly White (92.8%), female (77.6%), and highly educated (62.7%), which is an important limitation when generalising the findings to broader populations seeking weight management support.
Three profiles emerged as the best-fitting and most parsimonious model. Profile 1 was characterised by moderate mental health challenges and emotional eating. Profile 2 showed mental health challenges combined with dysregulated eating behaviours. Profile 3, by contrast, showed low mental health challenges and regulated eating behaviours.
The key finding concerned baseline weight. Compared with Profile 3, membership of Profile 1 was associated with a baseline weight that was 6.30 kg higher on average (95% CI 0.02 to 12.58, p = 0.049), and Profile 2 was associated with a baseline weight 8.61 kg higher (95% CI 1.05 to 16.16, p = 0.03). Both confidence intervals are wide, reflecting the modest sample size, but the associations reached conventional statistical significance.
Notably, profile membership was not associated with weight change at 12 months. In other words, although mental health and eating behaviour profiles tracked with how heavy participants were when they entered the programme, they did not predict how much weight participants lost or gained over the following year in this cohort.
The authors describe the study as a Level III cohort analytic study. Because the analysis is observational within a trial cohort and the profiles were derived from baseline measures, the findings describe associations rather than causal effects. The narrow demographic composition of the sample also means the profiles may look different in more diverse populations.
Still, the researchers argue the results have practical value. By illuminating how mental health challenges and eating behaviour traits cluster together in adults with overweight and obesity, the profiles could inform the design of targeted clinical and public health interventions that address the intersection of obesity and mental health, rather than treating these dimensions separately.
The article was published on 30 September 2026 and is open access. The publisher notes that this version is being shared early to provide faster access to peer-reviewed, accepted research; it is citable and carries a permanent DOI, but remains subject to further edits before the final Version of Record replaces it.
Subject of Research: Latent profiles of mental health and eating behaviour traits and their association with body weight in adults enrolled in a weight management intervention
Article Title: A latent profile analysis of eating behaviour traits, mental health, and their associations with weight in a cohort of adults enrolled in a weight management intervention
Article References: Al Ajmi, T., Povall, H., Mueller, J., Ahern, A. L., & Ruggiero, C. (2026). A latent profile analysis of eating behaviour traits, mental health, and their associations with weight in a cohort of adults enrolled in a weight management intervention. Eating and Weight Disorders – Studies on Anorexia, Bulimia and Obesity. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40519-026-01914-9
Image Credits: AI Generated
DOI: 10.1007/s40519-026-01914-9
Keywords: latent profile analysis, eating behaviour traits, mental health, obesity, overweight, weight management, SWiM-C trial, emotional eating, baseline weight, cohort study, latent, profile
News Source: Glenn Wilkins. (October 28, 2026). Mental Health and Eating Behaviour Profiles Linked to Higher Baseline Weight in Adults. Scienmag.
