The long-arm of adolescent weight status on later life depressive symptoms

Abstract

Background: given the increase in worldwide obesity among children and adolescents, the long-term consequences of childhood obesity on the risk of adverse health outcomes in later life has garnered increased attention. Much of the work on earlier life weight status and later life health has focused on cardiovascular-related outcomes in mid- to late-adulthood; however, little is known about the later life mental health consequences of adolescent body weight.

Methods: data came from the Wisconsin Longitudinal Study. We estimated gender-stratified logistic regression models to characterise the relationship between adolescent weight status using standardised relative body mass ascertained from high school photograph portraits in 1957 and depressive symptoms at age 65 using the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale measured in 2004.

Results: women who were overweight in adolescence were significantly more likely to experience depressive symptoms in later adulthood than their normal weight counterparts (odds ratio [OR] = 1.740) when the full set of controls was included. This relationship was not observed among men. The relationship between women's adolescent weight status and later life depressive symptoms was moderated by childhood socioeconomic status, and adolescent overweight was more predictive of later life depressive symptoms for women who were raised in low- and middle-income families (OR = 2.568 and OR = 2.763) than in high-income families (OR = 1.643).

Conclusion: these findings provide further evidence for the wide range of long-term consequences of adolescent overweight on later life well-being and are notable for the gender differences in the connection between early life circumstances and later life mental health.

Keywords: ageing; lifecourse/childhood circumstances; longitudinal studies; mental health; obesity; older people.