Browsing by Author "Kärkkäinen, Simo"

Objective. Depression is a significant public health risk and linked to numerous somatic diseases. The relationship between depression and cardiovascular diseases has been quite robustly indicated in previous studies. This correlation has occurred even when depressive symptoms remained below the diagnostic threshold. This study examined the longitudinal association between depressive symptoms and serum lipids. Additionally, body mass index and physical activity were explored as mediators in this relationship. Methods. The longitudinal data (n = 1323) for the study was drawn from the prospective population-based ongoing research project The Cardiovascular Risk in Young Finns Study. The age of the subjects was between 30 and 45 in 2007. Depressive symptoms, body mass index, and physical activity were measured in 2007 and serum lipids (total cholesterol, HDL cholesterol, LDL cholesterol, triglycerides) were measured in 2011. Depressive symptoms were assessed using a modified version of the Beck Depression Inventory. Linear modelling was used to analyze the association between depressive symptoms and serum lipids. Next a causal mediation model was formed to examine the mediation effects of body mass index and physical activity. Results. Depressive symptoms were associated with lowered HDL cholesterol and elevated triglycerides. No relationship was found between depressive symptoms and total cholesterol or LDL cholesterol. Both higher body mass index and lower physical activity mediated the association between depressive symptoms, HDL cholesterol and triglycerides. Conclusions. The partial association between depressive symptoms and serum lipids observed in this study was not fully consistent with previous scientific literature where depressive symptoms have quite often explained the variance of LDL cholesterol. The difference in results may be partly explained by the longitudinal design of this study. This study offers novel information on the relationship between depressive symptoms and serum lipids. Based on the modelling it was possible to infer that the association was likely causally mediated by body mass index and physical activity. In the future it is vital to further explore the longitudinal relationship between depression and serum lipids