Browsing by Author "Honkanen, Heidi"

Objectives. Obesity and depression are global health problems that cause enormous burden to the society as well as to the individuals. There is supposed to be a bidirectional association between obesity and depression which means that obesity cause depression and depression cause obesity. Previous research has partially supported this view, although there have been only few studies focusing on bidirectional association so far. This study examined whether there is a bidirectional association between obesity and depressive symptoms and how potential confounders and risk factors explain this relationship. Methods. The sample of this study (n = 1272) is part of an ongoing Young Finns Study, which began in 1980. Young Finns Study is an extensive Finnish population based follow-up study that examines cardiovascular risk factors from childhood to adulthood. Subjects were randomly chosen from the national register and data originally consisted of 3596 children and youths. Weight and depressive symptoms were measured in 2001 and 2007 and the confounders and risk factors in 2001. Examined confounders and risk factors in this study were socioeconomic status, social support and health behavior. Weight was examined by calculating body mass index and depressive symptoms were measured by using a modified version of the Beck Depression Inventory. Subjects of this study were 30–45 years old in 2007. Results and conclusions. Bidirectional association between obesity and depressive symptoms was found in this study. However, obesity did not predict change in depression nor did depression predict change in obesity in six years. In addition, male gender, higher age, low socioeconomic status, higher consumption of alcohol and low attention to health behavior functioned as risk factors for obesity. Risk factors for depressive symptoms were female gender, lack of social support and low attention to health behavior. These factors also partly explained the association between obesity and depressive symptoms. To conclude, in the current study there was a bidirectional association between obesity and depression, which was partly explained by confounders and other risk factors.