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Centre for Policy on Ageing | |
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Body mass index, waist circumference, waist-hip ratio and depressive symptoms in Chinese elderly
— a population-based study | | Author(s) | Roger C M Ho, Matthew Niti, Ee Heok Kua |
| Journal title | International Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry, vol 23, no 4, April 2008 |
| Pages | pp 401-408 |
| Source | http://www.interscience.wiley.com |
| Keywords | Obesity ; Depression ; Symptoms ; Correlation ; Singapore. |
| Annotation | Studies that have investigated the relationship between obesity and depressive symptoms in older people have produced conflicting findings, partly because of the use of body mass index (BMI) alone to measure obesity. Using BMI fails to account for varying proportions of muscle, fat and bone, and few studies have used other measures of central obesity, such as waist-hip ratio (WHR) or waist circumference (WC). This study used cross-sectional data from the Singapore Longitudinal Ageing Study (SLAS) for 2904 community-dwelling Chinese people aged 55+ to examine whether individually BMI, WHR and WC were consistently associated with depressive symptoms in older people. Measurements used included socio-economic characteristics, self-rated health and functional status, anthropometric measurements, and 15-item Geriatric Depression Scale (GDS-15). Increased BMI was associated inversely with depressive symptoms, and it may indicate greater physiological and functional reserve that protects against depression. The results also suggest that WHR and WC measures of central obesity did not support an inverse relationship of obesity with depression. The findings may have significance for mental health promotion, since physical activity which enhances muscle and skeletal strength may have a favourable impact on older people's psychological well-being. (RH). |
| Accession Number | CPA-080430210 A |
| Classmark | CSA: ENR: CT: 49: 7XD |
Data © Centre for Policy on Ageing |
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| ...from the Ageinfo database published by Centre for Policy on Ageing. |
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