Obesity as a prospective predictor of depression in adolescent females.
OBJECTIVE
Both obesity and depression are prominent during adolescence, and it is possible that obesity is a trigger for adolescent depression. The purpose of this paper is to evaluate whether overweight or obese status contributes to the development of depression in adolescent girls.


METHODS
Participants were 496 adolescent girls who completed interview based measures of depression and had their height and weight measured at four yearly assessments. Repeated measures logistic regressions with generalized estimating equations were used to evaluate whether overweight or obese status were associated with major depression or an increase in depressive symptoms the following year.


METHODS
Major depression and depressive symptoms were evaluating using a modified version of the K-SADS interview. Overweight and obese status was determined by using standardized protocols to measure height and weight.


RESULTS
RESULTS showed that obese status, not overweight status, was associated with future depressive symptoms, but not major depression. This study demonstrated that obesity is a risk factor for depressive symptoms, but not for clinical depression.


CONCLUSIONS
As depressive symptoms are considered along the spectrum of depression with clinical depression at the high end, these results suggest that weight status could be considered a factor along the pathway of development of depression in some adolescent females.
Boutelle
Kerri N
KN
University of Minnesota, MN, USA. kboutelle@ucsd.edu
Hannan
Peter
P
Fulkerson
Jayne A
JA
Crow
Scott J
SJ
Stice
Eric
E
D000293:Adolescent; D015992:Body Mass Index; D002648:Child; D003863:Depression / Q000150:complications* / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000523:psychology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D016015:Logistic Models; D009765:Obesity / Q000150:complications* / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000523:psychology*; D015995:Prevalence; D011446:Prospective Studies; D011569:Psychiatric Status Rating Scales; D012307:Risk Factors; D012574:Schools; D013334:Students; D013781:Texas / Q000453:epidemiology