Citation

Zhang L, Liu K, Li H, Li D, Chen Z, Zhang LL, Guo LL. BMC Public Health 2016; 16(1): e1201.

Affiliation

Department of Surgical Nursing, School of Nursing, Jinzhou Medical University, No.40, Section 3, Songpo Road, Linghe District, Jinzhou City, Liaoning Province, People's Republic of China. 275316050@qq.com.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2016, Holtzbrinck Springer Nature Publishing Group - BMC)

DOI

10.1186/s12889-016-3864-5

PMID

27894296

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Obesity has been identified as a worldwide epidemic. In China, the highest prevalence of obesity is observed in adults aged ≥45 years old. This study aimed to describe the association between BMI and depressive symptoms among a large representative sample of middle-aged and elderly in China.

METHOD: A longitudinal sample of the middle-aged and elderly (6,224 males and 6,883 females) who were interviewed in the 2011 China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study was used. A multivariate logistic regression analysis was used to examine the effects of socio-demographic characteristics, lifestyle, activity status, health status, physical exercise and body weight on depressive symptoms.

RESULTS: Approximately 6.94% of the males were underweight, 25.48% were overweight and 8.16% were obese. A higher prevalence of obesity was found among women, with 6.89% being underweight, 31.98% overweight and 14.28% obese. The underweight subjects were more likely to be depressed (odds ratio; OR = 1.30 and 1.19) compared with the normal weight people, respectively, whereas overweight and obese men and women were less likely to be depressed (overweight: OR = 0.76 and 0.80; obesity: OR = 0.64 and 0.65, respectively) than people of normal weight.

CONCLUSION: Our data are consistent with the "fat and jolly" hypothesis being valid in both middle-aged and elderly men and women.

Language: en