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Published on: December 2, 2015
Depression and its association with diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and birth weight
Maria Paile-Hyvärinen1, Katri Räikkönen, Tom Forsén
1National Public Health Institute, Department of Health Promotion and Chronic Disease Prevention, Diabetes Unit, Mannerheimintie 166, 00300 Helsinki, Finland. maria.paile@helsinki.fi
Background:
Diabetes increases the risk for depression.
Aim:
To study the independent effects of diabetes mellitus (DM) and cardiovascular disease (CVD) on the prevalence of depression and to examine low birth weight as a possible common explanatory factor.
Methods:
2003 subjects from the Helsinki Birth Cohort Study underwent a 75-g oral glucose tolerance test and filled out the Beck Depression Inventory.
Results:
Depressive symptoms were more prevalent among subjects with diabetes (23.5%) than among those with normal glucose tolerance (16.6%) (P < 0.001). A history of CVD also markedly increased the odds of having depressive symptoms (odds ratio (OR) = 2.38, 95% confidence interval (CI) = 1.70-3.32, P < 0.001). The association between DM and depressive symptoms was, however, rendered non-significant when adjusting for the presence of CVD. Being born with a low birth weight doubled the risk for having depressive symptoms (OR = 2.64, 95% CI = 1.42-4.91, P = 0.002) and magnified the association between CVD/DM and depression.
Conclusion:
Diabetes has only a minor independent effect on concurrent occurrence of depressive symptoms, while cardiovascular disease seems to be a more important underlying factor. The association between disease and depression is in particular characteristic to individuals born with a low birth weight.
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