You are here

  • Home
  • Archive
  • Volume 6, Issue 3
  • Depressive symptomatology, weight status and obesogenic risk among Australian adolescents: a prospective cohort study

Article Text

Article menu

Download PDFPDF

XML
Mental health
Research
Depressive symptomatology, weight status and obesogenic risk among Australian adolescents: a prospective cohort study
  1. Erin Hoare1,
  2. Lynne Millar1,
  3. Matthew Fuller-Tyszkiewicz2,3,
  4. Helen Skouteris2,3,
  5. Melanie Nichols1,
  6. Mary Malakellis1,
  7. Boyd Swinburn1,4,
  8. Steven Allender1
  1. 1School of Health and Social Development, Deakin University, Geelong, Victoria, Australia
  2. 2School of Psychology, Deakin University, Geelong, Victoria, Australia
  3. 3Centre for Social and Early Emotional Development, Deakin University, Burwood, Victoria, Australia
  4. 4Population Nutrition and Global Health, University of Auckland, Auckland, New Zealand
  1. Correspondence to Erin Hoare; ejhoa{at}deakin.edu.au

Abstract

Objectives Adolescence is a period of increased risk for mental health problems and development of associated lifestyle risk behaviours. This study examined cross-sectional and longitudinal associations between obesogenic risk factors, weight status, and depressive symptomatology in a cohort of Australian adolescents.

Design Prospective cohort study.

Setting The study used repeated measures data from the Australian Capital Territory (ACT) It's Your Move project, an Australian community-based obesity prevention intervention. Intervention effect was non-significant therefore intervention and comparison groups were combined in this study.

Participants Total sample was 634 secondary school students (female n=338, male n=296) with mean age 13 years (SD=0.6) at baseline (2012) and 15 years (SD=0.6) at follow-up (2014) recruited from 6 government secondary schools in the ACT.

Primary and secondary outcomes measures Primary outcome was depressive symptomatology measured by Short Mood and Feelings Questionnaire. Secondary outcomes were weight status, physical activity, screen time and diet related measures.

Results Increased physical activity was associated to lower depressive symptomatology among males (OR=0.35, p<0.05). Sweet drink (OR=1.15, p<0.05) and takeaway consumption (OR=1.84, p<0.05) were associated with higher levels of depressive symptomatology among females at follow-up. Males who were classified as overweight or obese at baseline, and remained so over the study period, were at increased risk of depressive symptomatology at follow-up (b=1.63, 95% CI 0.33 to 2.92). Inactivity among males over the 2-year study period was predictive of higher depressive symptomatology scores at follow-up (b=2.55, 95% CI 0.78 to 4.32). For females, those who increased their consumption of takeaway foods during the study period were at increased risk for developing depressive symptomatology (b=1.82, 95% CI −0.05 to 3.71).

Conclusions There are multiple, probably complex, relationships between diet, physical activity and outcomes of obesity and mental health as well as between the outcomes themselves. Healthier diets and increased physical activity should be foundations for healthier body weight and mental health.

Trial registration number ACTRN12615000842561; Results.

  • MENTAL HEALTH
  • PUBLIC HEALTH
  • PREVENTIVE MEDICINE

This is an Open Access article distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/

https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2015-010072

Statistics from Altmetric.com

    Request Permissions

    If you wish to reuse any or all of this article please use the link below which will take you to the Copyright Clearance Center’s RightsLink service. You will be able to get a quick price and instant permission to reuse the content in many different ways.

    View Full Text