title: Childhood and young adult overweight/obesity and incidence of depression in the SUN project.
abstract: This study included 11,825 participants of a Spanish dynamic prospective cohort based on former students from University of Navarra, registered professionals from some Spanish provinces, and university graduates from other associations, followed-up for 6.1 years. We aimed to assess the association between childhood or young adult overweight/obesity and the risk of depression. Participants were asked to select which of nine figures most closely represented their body shape at ages 5 and 20 years. Childhood and young adult overweight/obesity was defined as those cases in which participants reported body shape corresponding to the figures 6-9 (more obese categories) at age 5 or 20, respectively. A subject was classified as incident case of depression if he/she was initially free of depression and reported physician-made diagnosis of depression and/or the use of antidepressant medication in at least one of biannual follow-up questionnaires. The association between childhood and young adult overweight/obesity and incidence of depression was estimated by multiple-adjusted hazard ratio (HR) and its 95% confidence interval (95% CI). Overweight/obesity at age 5 years predicted an increased risk for adult depression (HR = 1.50, 95% CI = 1.06-2.12), and a stronger association was observed at age 20 years ((HR = 2.22, 95% CI = 1.22-4.08), (subjects younger than 30 years at recruitment were excluded from this last analysis)). Childhood or young adult overweight/obesity was associated with elevated risk of adult depression. These results, if causal and confirmed in other prospective studies, support treating childhood and young adult overweight/obesity as part of comprehensive adult depression prevention efforts.
authors.affiliation: Department of Clinical Sciences, University of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Spain. asanchez@dcc.ulpgc.es
authors.forename: Almudena
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Sánchez-Villegas
authors.forename: Adriano M
authors.initials: AM
authors.lastname: Pimenta
authors.forename: Juan J
authors.initials: JJ
authors.lastname: Beunza
authors.forename: Francisco
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Guillen-Grima
authors.forename: Estefanía
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Toledo
authors.forename: Miguel A
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Martinez-Gonzalez
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D001828:Body Image; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D015331:Cohort Studies; D003863:Depression / Q000453:epidemiology*; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006801:Humans; D015994:Incidence; D008297:Male; D009765:Obesity / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000523:psychology*; D050177:Overweight / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000523:psychology*; D000297:Psychology, Adolescent; D002666:Psychology, Child; D012307:Risk Factors; D055815:Young Adult