The Association between Depressive Symptoms and Body Mass Index Across Different Age Groups in Taiwan

[[abstract]]According to the World Health Organization, the global prevalence of depression is about 10%. However, in recent years, the depression prevalence rates in Taiwan have been on the rise every year and has become a serious public health problem. Currently in Taiwan, studies on depressive symptoms have been more focused on some segments of the population only, such as children, adolescents, the elderly and pregnant women. Few studies have examined the associations between depressive symptoms and Body Mass Index. Therefore, this study tried to to understand the factors associated with depressive symptoms and body mass index across different age groups. In this study, data from the Health Promotion Knowledge, Attitudes, and Performance Survey, conducted in 2002. A total of 23,847 Taiwanese adults (older than 18 years old), were suyveyrd. The relationships between depressive symptoms and body mass index were analyzed by T-test, Chi-square test and logistic regression. Results showed that the subjects with underweight, normal and overweight were 6.7%, 54.3% and38.9%, respectively. The subjects with depressive symptoms were 4.7%. Subjects who were females, less than 30 years of age and having a underweight, at lower education, not have partner, not have job, at lower socioeconomic status, at lower health status, more diseases, smoking, drinking, or without exercise were at higher risk of depressive symptoms. Based on our findings, it seems that an underweight does increase the elders’ risk of developing depressive symptoms, however, in 31-44 years, 45-64 years and older than 65 years old, this effect can be explained away by other controlled variables variables, such as age, gender, health status, and other types of depressive symptoms