Job strain in relation to body mass index: pooled analysis of 160 000 adults from 13 cohort studies. J Intern Med 2012; 272: 6573. Background. Evidence of an association between job strain and obesity is inconsistent, mostly limited to small-scale studies, and does not distinguish between categories of underweight or obesity subclasses. Objectives. To examine the association between job strain and body mass index (BMI) in a large adult population. Methods. We performed a pooled cross-sectional analysis based on individual-level data from 13 European studies resulting in a total of 161 746 participants (49% men, mean age, 43.7 years). Longitudinal analysis with a median follow-up of 4 years was possible for four cohort studies (n = 42 222). Results. A total of 86 429 participants were of normal weight (BMI 18.524.9 kg m-2), 2149 were underweight (BMI < 18.5 kg m-2), 56 572 overweight (BMI 25.029.9 kg m-2) and 13 523 class I (BMI 3034.9 kg m-2) and 3073 classes II/III (BMI = 35 kg m-2) obese. In addition, 27 010 (17%) participants reported job strain. In cross-sectional analyses, we found increased odds of job strain amongst underweight [odds ratio 1.12, 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.001.25], obese class I (odds ratio 1.07, 95% CI 1.021.12) and obese classes II/III participants (odds ratio 1.14, 95% CI 1.011.28) as compared with participants of normal weight. In longitudinal analysis, both weight gain and weight loss were related to the onset of job strain during follow-up. Conclusions. In an analysis of European data, we found both weight gain and weight loss to be associated with the onset of job strain, consistent with a U-shaped cross-sectional association between job strain and BMI. These associations were relatively modest; therefore, it is unlikely that intervention to reduce job strain would be effective in combating obesity at a population level.