RESEARCH AND PRACTICE Associations Between Lifestyle and Depressed Mood: Longitudinal Results From the Maastricht Aging Study

Depressed mood is presumed to be caused by a variety of physical, psychological, and so-cioenvironmental factors. ' For example, un-healthy lifestyles such as smoking, excessive alcohol use, low levels of physical exercise, or being overweight or ohese may provoke chronic diseases^' ' or worsen one's health sta-tus over time." * Chronic diseases frequently coincide with increased symptoms of depres-sion, ̂ and feelings of depression may in tum result in unhealthy lifestyles. " Potentially in-tensifying this "downwEird spiral, " unhealthy lifestyles might elicit or exacerbate feelings of depression,'' * and depression may subse-quently provoke or worsen the consequence