Daily affect and behavior in relation to inflammatory and metabolic health: An ambulatory assessment study

Daily life stress is associated with biological dysregulations including elevated inflammatory markers and poorer metabolic (immunometabolic) health, but it remains unclear how they are connected to daily life affect and behaviors. We examined whether daily life affect and behaviors were associated with immunometabolic health, and whether associations were moderated by the presence of a current depression/anxiety diagnosis.

In the Netherlands Study of Depression and Anxiety, participants (n = 357) with and without depression/anxiety self-reported positive affect (PA) and negative affect (NA) 5x/day while continuously wearing a research-grade actigraphy device for 14 days. We quantified four affect variables (i.e., M and SD of PA and NA) and three behavioral variables (i.e., minutes spent in moderate-to-vigorous physical activity [MVPA], sleep duration, and relative amplitude [RA; measure of circadian rhythmicity]), averaged across 14 days. We used linear regression analyses to explore their associations with three immunometabolic health outcomes: (1) inflammation index (based on C-Reactive Protein and Interleukin-6 levels), (2) metabolic index (based on five metabolic syndrome components), and (3) BMI (Body Mass Index), and examined if these associations were moderated by the presence of a current depression/anxiety diagnosis.

Analyses showed that higher MVPA and RA were consistently associated with lower inflammation index (B = -0.19; B = -0.12), metabolic index (B = -0.14, B = -0.15), and BMI (B = -1.23; B = -1.30) (all p's < 0.011). Longer sleep duration was associated with lower BMI (B = -0.80, p = 0.027). Affect variables were not associated with immunometabolic health outcomes (p's > 0.05). Associations were independent of mental health status (p's > 0.05).

Our findings suggest that more minutes spent in MVPA and a more pronounced circadian rhythm, assessed with actigraphy, are important correlates of better immunometabolic health, and highlight the potential of ambulatory assessment in understanding immunometabolic health.