IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/oup/geronb/v75y2020i8p1689-1698..html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Evidence of Bidirectional Associations Between Depressive Symptoms and Body Mass Among Older Adults

Author

Listed:
  • Charles F Emery
  • Deborah Finkel
  • Margaret Gatz
  • Anna K Dahl Aslan
  • Lynn M Martire

Abstract

ObjectivesBody fat, measured with body mass index (BMI), and obesity are associated with depressive symptoms. Among younger adults there is stronger evidence of obesity leading to depressive symptoms than of depressive symptoms leading to obesity, but the temporal relationship is unknown among older adults. This study utilized dual-change-score models (DCSMs) to determine the directional relationship between body mass and depressive symptoms among older adults.MethodParticipants (n = 1,743) from the Swedish Twin Registry (baseline age range 50–96 years) completed at least one assessment of BMI (nurse measurement of height and weight) and the Center for Epidemiologic Studies-Depression scale (CESD). More than half the sample completed 3 or more assessments, scheduled at intervals of 2–4 years. DCSMs modeled the relationship of BMI and CESD across age, both independently and as part of bivariate relationships.ResultsDepressive symptoms contributed to subsequent changes in BMI after age 70, while BMI contributed to subsequent changes in depressive symptoms after age 82. Thus, there is a reciprocal relationship that may change with age. The effect was more pronounced for women.DiscussionThe association of BMI and depressive symptoms is bidirectional among older adults, and it appears to be affected by both age and sex.

Suggested Citation

  • Charles F Emery & Deborah Finkel & Margaret Gatz & Anna K Dahl Aslan & Lynn M Martire, 2020. "Evidence of Bidirectional Associations Between Depressive Symptoms and Body Mass Among Older Adults," The Journals of Gerontology: Series B, The Gerontological Society of America, vol. 75(8), pages 1689-1698.
    • Handle: RePEc:oup:geronb:v:75:y:2020:i:8:p:1689-1698.
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1093/geronb/gbz022
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:oup:geronb:v:75:y:2020:i:8:p:1689-1698.. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Oxford University Press (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://academic.oup.com/psychsocgerontology .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.