Presenter: William Olson
Mentor: Josh Snodgrass
Poster: 26
Major: Biology
Previous research has documented complex associations between depression and body composition; in some studies, depression increases risk for being underweight, while in other studies it has been linked to obesity. However, the links between depression and body composition remain relatively unexplored among older adults and, additionally, no studies have systematically examined this relationship in non-Western countries. We used Wave 1 data from WHO’s Study on global AGEing and adult health (SAGE), a longitudinal study of nationally representative samples of older adults (>50 years old) in six middle income countries (China(nM=6024 nF=6803 n=12827), Ghana(nM=2237 nF=2050 n=4287), India(nM=3302 nF=3255 n=6557), Mexico(nM=869 nF=1330 n=2199), Russian Federation(nM=81 nF=267 n=348), and South Africa(nM=1551 nF=2103 n=3654)), to examine relationships among body mass index (BMI), waist circumference (WC), and depression (based on a symptom-based algorithm). Results indicate substantial differences in depression prevalence by sex and country, ranging from 1.6% (men in China) to 22.9% (women in Mexico). Variation by sex and country was also evident in prevalence of obesity (from 4.3% among Indian men to 52.7% in South African women) and underweight (0.5% in Mexican women to 40.3% in Indian men). Multiple regression analyses were used with weighted population samples to examine the relationship between body composition measures and depression classification while controlling for key covariates such as age, smoking, drinking, marital status, and income. Among older South African women, depression was positively associated with BMI (P=0.003). Otherwise, the lack of a significant relationship between depression and body composition variables in the individual SAGE countries suggests that depression is not a major driver of body composition among older adults.