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Centre for Policy on Ageing | |
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Association between obesity and depression
— evidence from a longitudinal sample of the elderly in Taiwan | | Author(s) | Hung-Hao Chang, Steven T Yen |
| Journal title | Aging & Mental Health, vol 16, no 1-2, January-March 2012 |
| Pages | pp 173-180 |
| Source | http://www.tandfonline.com |
| Keywords | Obesity ; Weight ; Depression ; Ageing process ; Taiwan ; Longitudinal surveys. |
| Annotation | Obesity has been identified as a worldwide epidemic. In Taiwan the highest prevalence of obesity is observed in adults aged 65 and above. This article investigates the effects of body weight status on the likelihood of depression among older adults in Taiwan. A longitudinal sample of older persons (1351 males and 1165 females) interviewed in both the 1999 and 2003 Surveys of Health and Living Status of the Elderly in Taiwan was used. A random effect logit model was estimated to examine the effects of body weight status, lifestyle and socio-demographic characteristics on the likelihood of depression. Findings showed that about 10.4% of older men were overweight and 13.4% were obese in 2003. A higher prevalence of obesity was found among older women, with 19.3% being overweight and 26.4% obese. Older men who were underweight were more likely to be depressed than those from other weight categories, while overweight and obese women were less likely to be depressed than their counterparts with normal weight. In contrast to most findings for Western countries, a negative association between obesity and depression among older persons is evident in Taiwan. The different findings between Western and Asian countries may be due to cultural differences. Unlike Western countries that attach a stigma to being excessively overweight, the phenomenon in Chinese society is not a symbol of poor health because only the wealthy can afford to eat more and put on more weight. (JL). |
| Accession Number | CPA-120820010 A |
| Classmark | CSA: 4X6: ENR: BG: 7DP: 3J |
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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