Metabolic health, obesity and depressive symptoms: is there a link?

Takeaway

• After adjusting for covariates, neither poor metabolic health nor obesity was associated with risk for depressive symptoms at the end of 2-year follow-up in a prospective study of English population.
• Lower wealth and baseline depression were strong predictors of risk for depressive symptoms at 2-year follow-up.

Why this matters

• Previous reports examining associations between metabolic health, obesity and depression are conflicting.
• Wealth inequalities continue to rise across England.

Study design

• Prospective study evaluated 6804 participants (mean age, 67.6 years) who participated in English Longitudinal Study of Ageing Wave 6 (2012-2013) and Wave 7 (2014-2015).
• A score ≥4 in Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression depicted elevated depressive symptoms.
• Presence of ≥2 metabolic risk factors defined poor metabolic health.
• Funding: None disclosed.

Key results

• At follow-up, 12.5% participants had elevated depressive symptoms.
• After adjusting for covariates, no association was observed between poor metabolic health and depressive symptoms (aOR, 1.17; P=.07).
• Similarly, obesity was not associated with depressive symptoms after adjusting for covariates (aOR, 1.19; P=.06).
• Individuals in the highest vs lowest (aOR, 0.31; P<.01) wealth quintiles were less likely to experience depressive symptoms.
• Baseline depression (aOR, 10.59; P<.01) was a strong predictor of future depression.

Limitations

• Findings generalisable to the English population.
• Only respondents aged >50 years were included.