Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2012 Nov;42(11):2351-60.
doi: 10.1017/S0033291712000566. Epub 2012 Apr 5.

Depressive symptoms are associated with weight gain among women

A R Sutin  1 , A B Zonderman  1
Affiliations

Depressive symptoms are associated with weight gain among women

A R Sutin et al. Psychol Med. 2012 Nov.

Abstract

Background: Many studies have linked depression and obesity; few have more than two assessments of depressive symptoms and adiposity to address the potential bidirectional relationship between adiposity and depressive symptoms from young adulthood through old age. We tested whether baseline depressive symptoms are associated with changes in weight, whether baseline adiposity is associated with changes in depressive symptoms, and whether these associations vary by sex.

Method: Participants (n=2251; 47% female) were from the Baltimore Longitudinal Study of Aging (BLSA). Using hierarchical linear modeling (HLM) on 30 years of data, the trajectory of adiposity and depressive symptoms over adulthood was estimated from >10 000 observations (mean=4.5 assessments per participant) of body mass index (BMI; kg/m2), waist circumference and hip circumference and >10 000 observations (mean=4.5 assessments per participant) of the Center for Epidemiological Studies Depression Scale (CES-D). Baseline depressive symptoms and adiposity were then tested as predictors of the trajectory of adiposity and depressive symptoms respectively. Additional analyses tested for sex-specific associations.

Results: Sex moderated the association between depressive symptoms and weight gain such that women who experienced depressed affect had greater increases in BMI (b(interaction)=0.12, S.E.=0.04), waist (b(interaction)=0.22, S.E.=0.10) and hip circumference (b(interaction)=0.20, S.E.=0.07) across the adult lifespan, controlling for relevant demographic and behavioral covariates. Baseline adiposity was unrelated to the trajectory of depressive symptoms (median b=0.00) for both sexes.

Conclusions: Women who experience symptoms of depression tend to gain more weight across adulthood than men who experience such symptoms. Whether an individual was normal weight or overweight was unrelated to changes in depressive symptoms across adulthood.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

Conflict of interest: The authors have no conflict of interest to report.

Figures

Figure
Figure
Estimated trajectories of BMI plotted separately for a baseline Depressed Affect score of 0 and a baseline Depressed Affect score of 12 for women (A) and men (B).
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

See all "Cited by" articles

References

    1. Adams KF, Schatzkin A, Harris TB, Kipnis V, Mouw T, Ballard-Barbash R, Hollenbeck A, Leitzmann MF. Overweight, obesity, and mortality in a large prospective cohort of persons 50 to 71 years old. New England Journal of Medicine. 2006;355:763–778. - PubMed
    1. Akil H, Haskett RF, Young EA, Grunhaus L, Kotun J, Weinberg V, Greden J, Watson SJ. Multiple HPA profiles in endogenous depression: Effect of age and sex on cortisol and beta-endorphin. Biological Psychiatry. 1993;33:73–85. - PubMed
    1. Anderson SE, Cohen P, Naumova EN, Jacques PF, Must A. Adolescent obesity and risk for subsequent major depressive disorder and anxiety disorder: Prospective evidence. Psychosomatic Medicine. 2007;69:740–747. - PubMed
    1. Angst J, Gamma A, Gastpar M, Lépine JP, Mendlewicz J, Tylee A. Gender differences in depression: Epidemiological findings from the European DEPRES I and II studies. European Archives of Psychiatry and Clinical Neuroscience. 2002a;252:201–209. - PubMed
    1. Angst J, Gamma A, Rössler W, Ajdacic V, Klein DN. Long-term depression versus episodic major depression: Results from the prospective Zurich study of a community sample. Journal of Affective Disorders. 2009;115:112–121. - PubMed

Publication types

-