Citation

Wang H, Leung GM, Schooling CM. J. Adolesc. Health 2014; 55(3): 408-414.

Affiliation

School of Public Health, Li Ka Shing Faculty of Medicine, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong SAR, People's Republic of China; City University of New York School of Public Health and Hunter College, New York, New York. Electronic address: mschooli@hunter.cuny.edu.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2014, Elsevier Publishing)

DOI

10.1016/j.jadohealth.2014.03.009

PMID

24794052

Abstract

PURPOSE: Depression is a public health issue, which often emerges in adolescence. Adiposity may be a factor in this emergence; however, in Western settings, both adiposity and depression tend to be socially patterned, making it unclear whether any association is biologically based or contextually specific.

METHODS: Multivariable analysis was used to assess the adjusted association of birth weight and life course body mass index (BMI) z score (at 3 and 9 months and 3, 7, 9, 11, and 12 years of age) and changes in BMI z score with adolescent depressive symptoms score at ∼14 years of age, assessed from Patient Health Questionnaire-9 (PHQ-9) in a population-representative Chinese study, Hong Kong's "Children of 1997" birth cohort, which has little social patterning of birth weight or BMI. We also assessed whether associations varied with sex.

RESULTS: PHQ-9 was available for 5,797 term births (73% follow-up). Birth weight z score, BMI z scores at 3 and 9 months and at 3, 7, 9, 11, and 12 years of age, and successive BMI z score changes had little association with PHQ-9 at ∼14 years of age, adjusted for socioeconomic position, parental depressive symptoms, and survey mode.

CONCLUSIONS: In a developed non-Western setting, life course adiposity does not appear to be a factor in the development of depressive symptoms in adolescence, suggesting that observed associations to date may be contextually specific rather than biologically based.

Language: en