Dynapenic abdominal obesity and the risk of depressive symptoms in middle-aged and older Chinese adults: Evidence from a national cohort study

BACKGROUND: Population-based evidence on the relationship between dynapenic abdominal obesity and depressive symptoms is rare. We aimed to prospectively investigate the relationship between dynapenic abdominal obesity and depressive symptoms among middle-aged and older Chinese adults. METHODS: A total of 9322 participants free of depressive symptoms in the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study were included. The participants were divided into four groups: non-dynapenic/non-abdominal obesity (ND/NAO), non-dynapenic/abdominal obesity (ND/AO), dynapenic/non-abdominal obesity (D/NAO) and dynapenic/abdominal obesity (D/AO) according to the sex-specific grip strength (<28 kg for men and <18 kg for women) and waist circumference (≥85 cm for men and ≥80 cm for women) that in line with the Chinese criteria. Depressive symptoms was defined as a score of ≥12 for the 10-item Center for Epidemiological Studies Depression Scale. Logistic regression model was used to explore the association between dynapenic abdominal obesity and depressive symptoms. RESULTS: After an approximately 3-year of follow-up, 1810 participants (19.4 %) developed depressive symptoms. The multivariable-adjusted odds ratio for the D/AO versus ND/NAO was 1.61 (95 % CI: 1.31-1.98) for depressive symptoms. In addition, this relationship was more profound in participants aged<60 years (OR = 2.27, 95 % CI: 1.60-3.22) than participants aged ≥60 (OR = 1.36, 95 % CI: 1.05-1.77; P-interaction = 0.04). However, dynapenic obesity (defined by body mass index) was not linked to depressive symptoms. LIMITATIONS: Causal link and residual confounding were not addressed because of the observational study design. CONCLUSIONS: Dynapenic abdominal obesity was associated with an increased risk of depressive symptoms, especially among those aged<60 years.