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Late-Life Depressed Mood and Weight Change Contribute to the Risk of Each Other

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Objective

Weight change may be considered an effect of depression. In turn, depression may follow weight change. Deteriorations in health may mediate these associations. The objective was to examine reciprocal associations between depressed mood and weight change, and the potentially mediating role of deteriorations in health (interim hospitalizations and incident mobility imitation) in these associations.

Methods

Data were from 2406 black and white men and women, aged 70–79 from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and Memphis, Tennessee participating in the Health, Aging and Body composition (Health ABC) study. Depressed mood at baseline (T1) and 3-year follow-up (T4) was measured with the CES-D scale. Three weight change groups (T1–T4) were created: loss (≥5% loss), stable (within ±5% loss or gain), and weight gain (≥5% gain).

Results

At T1 and T4, respectively 4.4% and 9.5% of the analysis sample had depressed mood. T1 depressed mood was associated with weight gain over the 3-year period (OR:1.91; 95%CI:1.13–3.22). Weight loss over the 3-year period was associated with T4 depressed mood (OR:1.51; 95%CI:1.05–2.16). Accounting for deteriorations in health in the reciprocal associations between weight change and depressed mood reduced effect sizes between 16–27%.

Conclusions

In this study, depressed mood predicted weight gain over three years, while weight loss over three years predicted depressed mood. These associations were partly mediated through deteriorations in health. Implications for clinical practice and prevention include increased awareness that depressed mood can cause weight change, but can also be preceded by deteriorations in health and weight change.

Section snippets

Study Population

The Health, Aging and Body Composition Study is an ongoing longitudinal cohort study designed to investigate the impact of body composition changes and weight-related health conditions on functional decline in older adults. The Health, Aging and Body Composition Study enrolled 3,075 well-functioning, 70- to 79-year old, black and white men and women. Participants were identified from a random sample of white Medicare beneficiaries and all age-eligible community-dwelling black residents in

RESULTS

Compared with respondents who were included in our analysis sample (N = 2,406), those who were not (N = 669) significantly older (t = 2.98, df = 3,073, p <0.01), less likely to be white (χ2 = 48.20, df = 1, p <0.01), less likely to be married (χ2 = 9.84, df = 2, p <0.01), less likely to try to change their weight (χ2 = 25.47, df = 1, p <0.01), more likely to have ever smoked (χ2 = 30.90, df = 2, p <0.01), and had significantly higher CES-D scores (t = 3.88, df = 3047, p <0.01) (Table 1). Table 1

DISCUSSION

Our study objective was to examine reciprocal associations between depressed mood and weight change over time using the conceptual model in Fig. 1. On the basis of results from our analyses, we can conclude that baseline depressed mood predicted 3-year weight gain. However, 3-year weight loss predicted depressed mood at T4. Both of these associations were partly mediated through interim hospitalizations or revascularization procedures and incident mobility limitation. Accounting for these

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    This study was supported by National Institute on Aging contracts N01-AG-6-2101, N01-AG-6-2103, and N01-AG-6-2106. This research was supported (in part) by the Intramural Research Program of NIH, National Institute on Aging.

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