Depressive Symptoms and Change in Abdominal Obesity in Older Persons
Open accessAbstract
CONTEXT: Depression has been hypothesized to result in abdominal obesity through the accumulation of visceral fat. No large study has tested this hypothesis longitudinally. OBJECTIVE: To examine whether depressive symptoms predict an increase in abdominal obesity in a large population-based sample of well-functioning older persons. DESIGN: The Health, Aging, and Body Composition Study, an ongoing prospective cohort study with 5 years of follow-up. SETTING: Community-dwelling older persons residing in the areas surrounding Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and Memphis, Tennessee. PARTICIPANTS: A total of 2088 well-functioning white and black persons aged 70 to 79 years. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Baseline depression was defined as a Center for Epidemiological Studies Depression score of 16 or higher. At baseline and after 5 years, overall obesity measures included body mass index (calculated as weight in kilograms divided by height in meters squared) and percentage of body fat (measured by dual-energy x-ray absorptiometry). Abdominal obesity measures included waist circumference, sagittal diameter, and visceral fat (measured by computed tomography). RESULTS: After adjustment for sociodemographics, lifestyle, diseases, and overall obesity, baseline depression was associated with a 5-year increase in sagittal diameter (beta = .054; P = .01) and visceral fat (beta = .080; P = .001). CONCLUSIONS: This study shows that depressive symptoms result in an increase in abdominal obesity independent of overall obesity, suggesting that there may be specific pathophysiological mechanisms that link depression with visceral fat accumulation. These results might also help explain why depression increases the risk of diabetes and cardiovascular disease.
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The metabolic syndrome and in particular visceral fat have been bidirectionally associated with depression in late life, specifically in men.
“The metabolic syndrome and in particular visceral fat have been bidirectionally associated with depression in late life,31, 32 specifically in men.”
From Association of depressive disorders, depression characteristics and antidepressant medication with inflammation (2012) · cites this paper as [31]
The Discussion (page unavailable) reports that depressive symptoms predicted increased abdominal obesity, particularly visceral fat, in older persons. The Results, under “Sex and race differences” (page unavailable), report the association in men and white women, not specifically men. The paper does not establish a bidirectional association or report an association between depression and metabolic syndrome. (LLM, conf=0.88)
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References 47 · Cited by 200
- Authors
- Vogelzangs, N., Kritchevsky, S. B., Beekman, A. T. F., Newman, A. B., Satterfield, S., Simonsick, E. M., Yaffe, K., Harris, T. B., & Penninx, B. W. J. H.
- Affiliations
- Amsterdam Public Health (NL)
- Wake Forest University Health Sciences (US)
- University of Pittsburgh (US)
- University of Tennessee Health Science Center (US)
- National Institutes of Health (US)
- University of California, San Francisco (US)
- ORCID
- Venue
- Archives of General Psychiatry
- Publisher
- American Medical Association (AMA)
- Published
- 2008-12-01
- Volume
- 65
- Issue
- 12
- Pages
- 1386
- ISSN
- 0003-990X (ISSN-L)
- PMC
- PMC3285453
- OpenAlex
- W1966210896
- Cited by
- 200
- References
- 47
- Citations by year
- 2026: 3 · 2025: 7 · 2024: 7 · 2023: 5 · 2022: 9 · 2021: 10 · 2020: 9 · 2019: 9 · 2018: 7 · 2017: 10 · 2016: 13 · 2015: 15 · 2014: 21 · 2013: 17 · 2012: 13
- FWCI
- 6.69
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- bronze
- doi.org
- Locations
- Archives of General Psychiatry (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Amsterdam UMC (VU Amsterdam) - Institutional Repository (publishedVersion)
- VU Research Portal (publishedVersion)
- Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (acceptedVersion)
- PubMed Central (acceptedVersion)
- Pure Amsterdam UMC (submittedVersion)
- Data Archiving and Networked Services (DANS) (submittedVersion)
- Funders
- National Institutes of Health (N01-AG-6-2103, n01ag062101-007, n01ag062103-006, N01‐AG‐6‐2106, n01ag062106-007, N01-AG-6-2101)
- National Institute on Aging (N01‐AG‐6–2101, N01 AG062106, N01AG62106, N01-AG-62103, N01 AG062103, P30AG021332, N01 AG062101)
- National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (N01AG62101, R01-HL72972-01, R01HL072972, N01AG62106, N01AG62103)
- Topics
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Endocrine and Autonomic Systems › Regulation of Appetite and Obesity
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Epidemiology › Adipokines, Inflammation, and Metabolic Diseases
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Eating Disorders and Behaviors
- Keywords
- depressive symptoms, abdominal obesity, visceral fat, older adults, sagittal diameter, waist circumference, body fat percentage, body mass index, diabetes risk, cardiovascular risk
- MeSH terms
- Aged, Aging, Anthropometry, Body Weight, Cross-Sectional Studies, Depression, Female, Humans, Hypothalamo-Hypophyseal System, Life Style, Male, Obesity, Pituitary-Adrenal System, Abdominal Fat, Waist Circumference
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