@article{ref1,
title="Life Course Adiposity and Adolescent Depressive Symptoms Among Hong Kong Adolescents",
journal="Journal of Adolescent Health",
year="2014",
author="Wang, Hui and Leung, Gabriel M. and Schooling, C. Mary",
volume="55",
number="3",
pages="408-414",
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. <br><br>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 &quot;Children of 1997&quot; birth cohort, which has little social patterning of birth weight or BMI. We also assessed whether associations varied with sex. <br><br>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. <br><br>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.<p /><p>Language: en</p>",
language="en",
issn="1054-139X",
doi="10.1016/j.jadohealth.2014.03.009",
url="http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jadohealth.2014.03.009"
}