Taipei Medical University.

No Correlation Between Body Mass Index of Adolescents in Taiwan and Self-Reported Depression Risk

Pei-Yu Wu, De-Zhi Weng, Yu-Pin Hsu, Ya-Ping Chang, Guan-En Chen, Shwu-Huey Sherry Yang School of Nutrition and Health Sciences, Taipei Medical University

I ntroduction

O bejective

M ethods

R esults and Discussion

C onclusion

Depression is one of the major worldwide public health issues. 84.3% of adolescents in Taiwan had felt depression, and 15.3% of them feel depression every day. The obesity prevalence among adolescents in Taiwan increases in the decades. Obesity adolescents may have higher depression risk in the future. Overeating results in obesity, and both of overeating and obesity contribute to depression. However, there is less information about the obesity and depression among adolescents in Taiwan.

To demonstrate whether the obesity adolescents in Taiwan have worsen depression condition. .

This is a cross-over study. Six hundred and twenty-eight junior high school students in north Taiwan were recruited in 2007. The information of self-reported depression questionnaire and data of body mass index (BMI) were collected. BMI over the recommendation from Department of Healthy in Taiwan was considered obesity (Table 1). The questionnaire was from John Tong Foundation, higher score means lower mode.

Data were presented as mean ± SE. One way ANOVA was used to compare the depression score among non-obesity, overweight and obesity subjects. When p value < 0.05 was considered as statistically significant.

Forty-eight subjects completed the study. Twenty-three subjects were obesity, and three subjects were overweight (Table 2). Both of gender and age did not affect the BMI and obesity risk. The range of depression score was from 6 to 53. Comparing with non-obesity subjects, the obesity subjects did not have statistically higher depression score (data did not show). Besides, the depression score was not significantly different among subjects with non-obesity, overweight and obesity definition (Figure 1).

The limitation of association between obesity and depression in our study might be attributed to the following reasons. At first, only 7.6% of subjects had anthropometric measurements. The self-reported questionnaire was used to determine the depression, and lack of the diagnosis by attending psychiatrist at the department of psychiatry .

The obesity adolescents did not have worsened depression condition by self-reported depression questionnaire. Future studies should utilize larger sample size to provide more precise measure of the correlation between obesity and depression in adolescents.

Table 2. Demographic and anthropometric data11

Table 1. Definition of overweight and obesity in children and adolescents1

BMI (kg/m2) Overweight Obesity Age

Male Female Male Female 12 years > 21.5 > 21.6 > 24.2 > 23.9 13 years > 22.2 > 22.2 > 24.8 > 24.6 14 years > 22.7 > 22.7 > 25.2 > 25.1

All subjects Non-obesity Overweight Obesity n 48 22 3 23 Male 46% 41% 0% 57% Age (years) 12.8 ± 0.1 13.1 ± 0.2 13.3 ± 0.3 12.5 ± 0.1 Body mass index (kg/m2) 24.3 ± 0.9 18.7 ± 0.6 22.7 ± 0.1 29.8 ± 0.6 Depression score 34.4 ± 1.8 33.5 ± 2.6 29.3 ± 5.5 35.9 ± 2.8 1Values were presented as mean ± stand error or the numbers. 2There was no significantly different among subjects with non-obesity, overweight and obesity, and calculated by one way ANOVA.

1 Recommend by Department of Healthy, Executive Yuan, (ROC), Taiwan

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10 15 20 25 30 35Body mass index

Depression score

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Figure 1. The correlation between BMI and depression score. The pink point was predictive depression score and blue point was actual score. (R = 0.135, p = 0.36).