Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-gbm5v Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-23T13:58:57.712Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Symptoms of depression and anxiety, and change in body mass index from adolescence to adulthood: results from a British birth cohort

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 March 2010

D. Gaysina ,
M. Hotopf ,
M. Richards ,
I. Colman ,
D. Kuh  and
R. Hardy
D. Gaysina*
Affiliation:
MRC Unit for Lifelong Health and Ageing, University College London, London, UK
M. Hotopf
Affiliation:
King's College London, Institute of Psychiatry, London, UK
M. Richards
Affiliation:
MRC Unit for Lifelong Health and Ageing, University College London, London, UK
I. Colman
Affiliation:
School of Public Health, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Canada
D. Kuh
Affiliation:
MRC Unit for Lifelong Health and Ageing, University College London, London, UK
R. Hardy
Affiliation:
MRC Unit for Lifelong Health and Ageing, University College London, London, UK
*
*Address for correspondence: D. Gaysina, Ph.D., MRC Unit for Lifelong Health and Ageing, 33 Bedford Place, London WC1B 5JU, UK. (Email: [email protected])
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Background

Depression and anxiety have been shown to be associated with obesity and underweight, but little is known about how the relationship varies across the life course, from adolescence through adulthood. We aimed to investigate the association between adolescent- and adult-onset affective symptoms and body mass index (BMI) change from age 15 to 53 years.

Method

We used data from a British birth cohort born in 1946 and followed up ever since. The relationship between affective symptom profiles, distinguishing adolescent-onset and adult-onset symptoms, and BMI change from adolescence to age 53 years was investigated using multilevel models.

Results

Women with adolescent-onset symptoms had lower mean BMI at age 15 years, faster rates of increase across adulthood, and higher BMI at age 53 years than those with no symptoms. Men with adolescent-onset symptoms had lower BMI at all ages from 15 to 53 years. The BMI trajectories of men and women with adult-onset symptoms did not differ from those with absence of symptoms at all ages.

Conclusions

The relationship between affective symptoms and change in BMI varies by sex and age at onset of symptoms. Adolescence may be an important period for the development of the association between affective symptoms and weight gain in girls. Intervention to prevent increases in BMI across adult life in women with adolescent-onset symptoms, even if they are not overweight at this age, should be considered.

Keywords

Adolescentaffective symptomsBMIlongitudinal studyobesity
Type
Original Articles
Information
Psychological Medicine , Volume 41 , Issue 1 , January 2011 , pp. 175 - 184
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2010

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Anderson, SE, Cohen, P, Naumova, EN, Must, A (2006). Association of depression and anxiety disorders with weight change in a prospective community-based study of children followed up into adulthood. Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine 160, 285–291.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Atlantis, E, Baker, M (2008). Obesity effects on depression: systematic review of epidemiological studies. International Journal of Obesity 32, 881–891.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Bardone, AM, Moffitt, TE, Caspi, A, Dickson, N, Stanton, WR, Silva, PA (1998). Adult physical health outcomes of adolescent girls with conduct disorder, depression, and anxiety. Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry 37, 594–601.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Barefoot, JC, Heitmann, BL, Helms, MJ, Williams, RB, Surwit, RS, Siegler, IC (1998). Symptoms of depression and changes in body weight from adolescence to mid-life. International Journal of Obesity and Related Metabolic Disorders 22, 688–694.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Bjorge, T, Engeland, A, Tverdal, A, Smith, GD (2008). Body mass index in adolescence in relation to cause-specific mortality: a follow-up of 230,000 Norwegian adolescents. American Journal of Epidemiology 168, 30–37.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Blaine, B (2008). Does depression cause obesity?: a meta-analysis of longitudinal studies of depression and weight control. Journal of Health Psychology 13, 1190–1197.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Bornstein, SR, Schuppenies, A, Wong, ML, Licinio, J (2006). Approaching the shared biology of obesity and depression: the stress axis as the locus of gene–environment interactions. Molecular Psychiatry 11, 892–902.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Carpenter, KM, Hasin, DS, Allison, DB, Faith, MS (2000). Relationships between obesity and DSM-IV major depressive disorder, suicide ideation, and suicide attempts: results from a general population study. American Journal of Public Health 90, 251–257.Google ScholarPubMed
Chaiton, MO, Cohen, JE, O'Loughlin, J, Rehm, J (2009). A systematic review of longitudinal studies on the association between depression and smoking in adolescents. BMC Public Health 9, 356.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Clennell, S, Kuh, D, Guralnik, JM, Patel, KV, Mishra, GD (2008). Characterisation of smoking behaviour across the life course and its impact on decline in lung function and all-cause mortality: evidence from a British birth cohort. Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health 62, 1051–1056.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Colman, I, Murray, J, Abbott, RA, Maughan, B, Kuh, D, Croudace, TJ, Jones, PB (2009). Outcomes of conduct problems in adolescence: 40 year follow-up of national cohort. British Medical Journal 338, a2981.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Colman, I, Ploubidis, GB, Wadsworth, ME, Jones, PB, Croudace, TJ (2007 a). A longitudinal typology of symptoms of depression and anxiety over the life course. Biological Psychiatry 62, 1265–1271.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Colman, I, Wadsworth, ME, Croudace, TJ, Jones, PB (2007 b). Forty-year psychiatric outcomes following assessment for internalizing disorder in adolescence. American Journal of Psychiatry 164, 126–133.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Compton, MT, Daumit, GL, Druss, BG (2006). Cigarette smoking and overweight/obesity among individuals with serious mental illnesses: a preventive perspective. Harvard Review of Psychiatry 14, 212–222.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
de Wit, LM, van Straten, A, van Herten, M, Penninx, BW, Cuijpers, P (2009). Depression and body mass index, a U-shaped association. BMC Public Health 9, 14.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
DiPietro, L, Anda, RF, Williamson, DF, Stunkard, AJ (1992). Depressive symptoms and weight change in a national cohort of adults. International Journal of Obesity and Related Metabolic Disorders 16, 745–753.Google Scholar
Diverse Populations Collaboration (2005). Weight–height relationships and body mass index: some observations from the diverse populations collaboration. American Journal of Physical Anthropology 128, 220–229.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Duarte, CS, Sourander, A, Nikolakaros, G, Pihlajamaki, H, Helenius, H, Piha, J, Kumpulainen, K, Moilanen, I, Tamminen, T, Almqvist, F, Must, A (2010). Child mental health problems and obesity in early adulthood. Journal of Pediatrics 156, 93–97.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Forman-Hoffman, VL, Yankey, JW, Hillis, SL, Wallace, RB, Wolinsky, FD (2007). Weight and depressive symptoms in older adults: direction of influence? Journals of Gerontology B Psychological Sciences and Social Sciences 62, S43–S51.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Franko, DL, Striegel-Moore, RH, Thompson, D, Schreiber, GB, Daniels, SR (2005). Does adolescent depression predict obesity in black and white young adult women? Psychological Medicine 35, 1505–1513.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Ge, X, Conger, RD, Elder, GH Jr. (2001). Pubertal transition, stressful life events, and the emergence of gender differences in adolescent depressive symptoms. Developmental Psychology 37, 404–417.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Goldberg, DP, Hillier, VF (1979). A scaled version of the General Health Questionnaire. Psychological Medicine 9, 139–145.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Goodman, E, Whitaker, RC (2002). A prospective study of the role of depression in the development and persistence of adolescent obesity. Pediatrics 110, 497–504.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Green, H, McGinnity, A, Meltzer, H, Ford, T, Goodman, R (2005). Mental Health of Children and Young People in Britain 2004. Palgrave MacMillan: London.Google Scholar
Hardy, R, Wadsworth, M, Kuh, D (2000). The influence of childhood weight and socioeconomic status on change in adult body mass index in a British national birth cohort. International Journal of Obesity and Related Metabolic Disorders 24, 725–734.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Harris, T (2001). Recent developments in understanding the psychosocial aspects of depression. British Medical Bulletin 57, 17–32.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hasler, G, Pine, DS, Gamma, A, Milos, G, Ajdacic, V, Eich, D, Rossler, W, Angst, J (2004). The associations between psychopathology and being overweight: a 20-year prospective study. Psychological Medicine 34, 1047–1057.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Hasler, G, Pine, DS, Kleinbaum, DG, Gamma, A, Luckenbaugh, D, Ajdacic, V, Eich, D, Rossler, W, Angst, J (2005). Depressive symptoms during childhood and adult obesity: the Zurich Cohort Study. Molecular Psychiatry 10, 842–850.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Haukkala, A, Uutela, A, Salomaa, V (2001). Depressive symptoms, cynical hostility, and weight change: a 3-year follow-up among middle-aged men and women. International Journal of Behavioral Medicine 8, 116–133.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Istvan, J, Zavela, K, Weidner, G (1992). Body weight and psychological distress in NHANES I. International Journal of Obesity and Related Metabolic Disorders 16, 999–1003.Google Scholar
Jaffee, SR, Moffitt, TE, Caspi, A, Fombonne, E, Poulton, R, Martin, J (2002). Differences in early childhood risk factors for juvenile-onset and adult-onset depression. Archives of General Psychiatry 59, 215–222.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Jones, P, Rodgers, B, Murray, R, Marmot, M (1994). Child development risk factors for adult schizophrenia in the British 1946 birth cohort. Lancet 344, 1398–1402.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kaufman, J, Martin, A, King, RA, Charney, D (2001). Are child-, adolescent-, and adult-onset depression one and the same disorder? Biological Psychiatry 49, 980–1001.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kivimaki, M, Batty, GD, Singh-Manoux, A, Nabi, H, Sabia, S, Tabak, AG, Akbaraly, TN, Vahtera, J, Marmot, MG, Jokela, M (2009). Association between common mental disorder and obesity over the adult life course. British Journal of Psychiatry 195, 149–155.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kuh, D, Ben Shlomo, Y, Lynch, J, Hallqvist, J, Power, C (2003). Life course epidemiology. Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health 57, 778–783.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Liem, ET, Sauer, PJ, Oldehinkel, AJ, Stolk, RP (2008). Association between depressive symptoms in childhood and adolescence and overweight in later life: review of the recent literature. Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine 162, 981–988.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lindelow, M, Hardy, R, Rodgers, B (1997). Development of a scale to measure symptoms of anxiety and depression in the general UK population: The Psychiatric Symptom Frequency Scale. Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health 51, 549–557.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Magnusson, PK, Rasmussen, F, Lawlor, DA, Tynelius, P, Gunnell, D (2006). Association of body mass index with suicide mortality: a prospective cohort study of more than one million men. American Journal of Epidemiology 163, 1–8.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Mamun, AA, O'Callaghan, MJ, Cramb, SM, Najman, JM, Williams, GM, Bor, W (2009). Childhood behavioral problems predict young adults' BMI and obesity: evidence from a birth cohort study. Obesity 17, 761–766.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Maughan, B (2002). Depression and psychological distress: a life course perspective. In A Life Course Approach to Women's Health (ed. Kuh, D. and Hardy, R.), pp. 161–176. Oxford University Press: Oxford.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Moore, ME, Stunkard, A, Srole, L (1997). Obesity, social class, and mental illness. 1962. Obesity Research 5, 503–508.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Noll, JG, Zeller, MH, Trickett, PK, Putnam, FW (2007). Obesity risk for female victims of childhood sexual abuse: a prospective study. Pediatrics 120, e61–e67.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pine, DS, Cohen, P, Brook, J, Coplan, JD (1997). Psychiatric symptoms in adolescence as predictors of obesity in early adulthood: a longitudinal study. American Journal of Public Health 87, 1303–1310.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Pine, DS, Goldstein, RB, Wolk, S, Weissman, MM (2001). The association between childhood depression and adulthood body mass index. Pediatrics 107, 1049–1056.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Registrar General (1971). Classification of Occupations. HMSO: London, UK.Google Scholar
Richards, M, Abbott, R (2009). Childhood mental health and life chances in post-war Britain: insights from three national birth cohort studies. The Smith Institute (http://www.smith-institute.org.uk/pdfs/life_chances_report.pdf). Accessed 23 October 2009.Google Scholar
Richardson, LP, Davis, R, Poulton, R, McCauley, E, Moffitt, TE, Caspi, A, Connell, F (2003). A longitudinal evaluation of adolescent depression and adult obesity. Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine 157, 739–745.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Roberts, RE, Deleger, S, Strawbridge, WJ, Kaplan, GA (2003). Prospective association between obesity and depression: evidence from the Alameda County Study. International Journal of Obesity and Related Metabolic Disorders 27, 514–521.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Rutter, M (1967). A children's behaviour questionnaire for completion by teachers: preliminary findings. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry 8, 1–11.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Schutz, Y, Woringer, V (2002). Obesity in Switzerland: a critical assessment of prevalence in children and adults. International Journal of Obesity and Related Metabolic Disorders 26 (Suppl. 2), S3–S11.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Stice, E, Presnell, K, Spangler, D (2002). Risk factors for binge eating onset in adolescent girls: a 2-year prospective investigation. Health Psychology 21, 131–138.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Stunkard, AJ, Faith, MS, Allison, KC (2003). Depression and obesity. Biological Psychiatry 54, 330–337.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Tanofsky-Kraff, M, Cohen, ML, Yanovski, SZ, Cox, C, Theim, KR, Keil, M, Reynolds, JC, Yanovski, JA (2006). A prospective study of psychological predictors of body fat gain among children at high risk for adult obesity. Pediatrics 117, 1203–1209.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Teicher, MH, Samson, JA, Polcari, A, Andersen, SL (2009). Length of time between onset of childhood sexual abuse and emergence of depression in a young adult sample: a retrospective clinical report. Journal of Clinical Psychiatry 70, 684–691.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ternouth, A, Collier, D, Maughan, B (2009). Childhood emotional problems and self-perceptions predict weight gain in a longitudinal regression model. BMC Medicine 7, 46.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
van Os, J, Jones, P, Lewis, G, Wadsworth, M, Murray, R (1997). Developmental precursors of affective illness in a general population birth cohort. Archives of General Psychiatry 54, 625–631.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wadsworth, ME, Butterworth, SL, Hardy, RJ, Kuh, DJ, Richards, M, Langenberg, C, Hilder, WS, Connor, M (2003). The life course prospective design: an example of benefits and problems associated with study longevity. Social Science and Medicine 57, 2193–2205.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Williamson, DF, Thompson, TJ, Anda, RF, Dietz, WH, Felitti, V (2002). Body weight and obesity in adults and self-reported abuse in childhood. International Journal of Obesity and Related Metabolic Disorders 26, 1075–1082.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Wills, AK, Hardy, JR, Black, S, Kuh, DJ (2009). Trajectories of overweight and body mass index in adulthood and blood pressure at age 53: the 1946 British birth cohort study. Journal of Hypertension. Published online: 29 December 2009. doi: 10.1097/HJH.0b013e328335de7b.Google Scholar
Wing, JK, Cooper, JE, Sartorius, N (1974). The Measurement and Classification of Psychiatric Symptoms. Cambridge University Press: Cambridge.Google Scholar
WHO (2008). The global burden of disease: 2004 update (http://www.who.int/healthinfo/global_burden_disease/GBD_report_2004update_part4.pdf). Accessed 23 October 2009.Google Scholar