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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Public Health
Sec. Public Mental Health
Volume 13 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2025.1559582
This article is part of the Research Topic The Intersection of Psychology, Healthy Behaviors, and its Outcomes View all 71 articles
How individual BMI affected general cognitive ability in young adults: a moderated chain mediation model
Provisionally accepted- Wenzhou Medical University, Wenzhou, China
Objective: With the rising global obesity rates, increasing research has been directed towards understanding how obesity affects cognitive ability in young adults. This study aims to explore the impact of body mass index (BMI) on general cognitive ability and how sleep quality and impulsive trait mediate this relationship. Methods: A total of 1205 young adults from Human Connectome Project(HCP) project were included, and questionnaires and cognitive assessment tools were conducted. Results: BMI was negatively correlated with general cognitive ability, with sleep quality and impulsive trait acting as chain mediators between BMI and general cognitive ability. Additionally, gender moderated the effect of BMI on sleep quality, with this effect being more pronounced in female young adults. Conclusions: This study not only provided new insights into the impact of BMI on general cognitive ability in young adults but also offered an important perspective on how sleep quality and impulsive trait influenced this process. These findings provide a scientific basis for preventive measures against obesity and cognitive impairment in young adults.
Keywords: BMI, general cognitive ability, sleep quality, impulsive trait, Chain mediation model, gender differences
Received: 13 Jan 2025; Accepted: 07 Mar 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Lv, Xu, Sun, Zhou, Xu, He, Xu, Xu and Xu. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence:
Hui Xu, Wenzhou Medical University, Wenzhou, China
Cheng Xu, Wenzhou Medical University, Wenzhou, China
Jing Xu, Wenzhou Medical University, Wenzhou, China
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