Depression Is Associated with Sarcopenia, Not Central Obesity, in Elderly Korean Men.

Kim, Nam Hoon; Kim, Hye Sook; Eun, Chai Ryoung; Seo, Ji A; Cho, Hyun Joo; Kim, Sin Gon; Choi, Kyung Mook; Baik, Sei Hyun; Choi, Dong Seop; Park, Moon Ho; Han, Changsu; Kim, Nan Hee

Objectives To examine the relationship between depression and various components of body composition, including fat and muscle, in elderly Koreans. Design A cross-sectional sample of a longitudinal cohort from the Ansan Geriatric ( AGE) Study. Setting Elderly people living in urban area (Ansan City, South Korea). Participants Eight hundred thirty-six participants (378 male, 458 female) aged 60 and older were recruited from April 2006 to January 2008. Measurements Depressive symptoms were examined using the Korean version of the 30-item Geriatric Depression Scale ( KGDS). Participants taking antidepressant medications or with a KGDS score of 14 or greater were classified as having depression. Abdominal visceral fat area ( VFA) and subcutaneous fat area were assessed using single-slice computed tomography, and appendicular skeletal muscle mass ( ASM) and percentage body fat (% BF) were determined using whole-body dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry. Results Elderly men with depression had a lower ASM than those without depression ( P = .01) after adjusting for age, body weight, and height. In men, the risk of depression was lower with higher body mass index ( BMI) (odds ratio ( OR) per 1-standard deviation ( SD) increase = 0.70, 95% confidence interval ( CI) = 0.51-0.96) after adjusting for all confounding variables and higher ASM ( OR per 1- SD increase = 0.49; 95% CI = 0.29-0.85) after controlling for age, height, and weight. Similarly, depression was negatively associated with BMI in women ( OR per 1- SD increase = 0.73; 95% CI = 0.56-0.95). Waist circumference, % BF, and VFA were not consistently associated with depression in men or women. Conclusion Depression in elderly Koreans is associated with low body mass and sarcopenia, especially in men.

SOUTH Korea; ANALYSIS of variance; BODY composition; CONFIDENCE intervals; MENTAL depression; EPIDEMIOLOGY; LONGITUDINAL method; MUSCULAR atrophy; OBESITY; REGRESSION analysis; RESEARCH funding; SEX distribution; T-test (Statistics); TOMOGRAPHY; X-ray densitometry in medicine; DATA analysis; BODY mass index; DISEASE prevalence; CROSS-sectional method; GERIATRIC Depression Scale; DATA analysis software

Journal of the American Geriatrics Society, 2011, Vol 59, Issue 11, p2062

0002-8614

Academic Journal

10.1111/j.1532-5415.2011.03664.x