The Relationship between Depressive Symptoms and Modifiable Lifestyle Risk Factors in Office Workers

This study investigated the relationship between depressive symptoms and physical fitness, obesity indices, and vitamin D status in office workers.

The subjects were 514 adults with more 30 years of experience as office workers in the city of Seoul. Lifestyle risk factors, obesity indices, physical fitness, and serum vitamin D levels were assessed with a standardized protocol. The Beck Depression Inventory (BDI) was used to assess depression status. Vitamin D status was assessed by measuring serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D concentrations. Based on the BDI scores, participants were classified into no depression (ND, BDI ≤9), mild depression (MiD, 10≤BDI≤15), and moderate depression (MoD, 16≤BDI≤23) groups.

Compared with the high cardiorespriatory fitness group, the low cardiorespiratory fitness (men OR=2.618, women OR=1.596) an middle cardiorespiratory fitness group (men OR=1.256, women OR=1.110) had significantly higher odds ratio for having depressive symptoms, even after adjustment for age, hypertension, diabetes, hyperlipidemia, cardiovascular disease, alcohol intake, smoking, body mass index (BMI), percent body fat (%BF), and waist circumference (WC). Compared with the insufficient or deficient vitamin D group, the sufficient vitamin D group had significantly lower odds ratios for having depressive symptoms (men OR=0.121, women OR=0.114), even after adjustment for age, hypertension, diabetes, hyperlipidemia, cardiovascular disease, alcohol intake, smoking, BMI, %BF, and WC.

Vitamin D supplementation and outdoor activities should be key components of a lifestyle intervention against office workers' depression.