title: Associations between waist circumference and depressive disorders.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Previous research has suggested that abdominal obesity and mental disorders are associated. This paper was initiated to investigate associations between unfavourable waist circumference (WC) and mental disorders in a representative sample of German adults.
  
  
  METHODS
  4181 individuals (aged 18-65 years) took part in a physical examination (including measurement of body weight and WC) and a structured psychological interview (M-CIDI) to evaluate mental disorders.
  
  
  RESULTS
  An unfavourable WC (males: 26.9%; females: 31.3%) was highly prevalent. However, unfavourable WC and mental disorders were not associated, neither with regard to the prevalence of any mental disorder nor regarding in particular depressive disorders. Moreover, even middle-aged depressive women that have often been assumed to be at high risk of increased visceral fat did not show more unfavourable WCs than their non-depressed, female counterparts.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The main limitation is that the co-occurrence of mental disorders and obesity was recorded but not, if obesity was related to the onset of mental problems.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  From an epidemiologic perspective, it is not possible to prove associations between WC and mental disorders. Patients with unfavourable waist circumferences do not show a higher prevalence of depressive disorders.
authors.affiliation: Public Health Association Saxony, Medical Faculty, Technical University of Dresden, FR Germany. Isabel.Hach@mailbox.tu-dresden.de
authors.forename: Isabel
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Hach
authors.forename: Uwe E
authors.initials: UE
authors.lastname: Ruhl
authors.forename: Jens
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Klotsche
authors.forename: Michael
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Klose
authors.forename: Frank
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Jacobi
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000886:Anthropometry; D001835:Body Weight; D003866:Depressive Disorder / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000523:psychology; D039721:Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D050152:Intra-Abdominal Fat; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009765:Obesity / Q000453:epidemiology*; D015995:Prevalence; D049629:Waist-Hip Ratio