Correlation between nutritional status and depressive symptoms in middle school students / 中国学校卫生

ABSTRACT

Objective@#To explore the correlation between different nutritional status and depressive symptoms among adolescents, so as to provide a theoretical basis for targeted improvement of nutritional status and depressive symptoms in adolescents.@*Methods@#A total of 8 102 adolescents aged 12-17 years in Shanghai, Urumqi, Changsha and Kunming were selected by random cluster sampling. Depressive symptoms were assessed by the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale(CES-D). Height and weight were measured. Kruskal Wallis H test, Chi square test and ordinal Logistic regression were used to analyze the relationship between nutritional status and depressive symptoms in adolescents.@*Results@#The overall detection rate of depressive symptoms in adolescents was 25.6%, with girls (30.1%) higher than that of boys (21.1%) ( χ 2=87.60, P <0.01). There were statistically significant differences in the scores of depressive symptoms among girls with different nutritional status ( Z =8.34, P <0.05). The detectable rate of depressive symptoms increased with BMI among girls( χ 2 trend =6.04, P <0.05). After controlling for confounding factors, ordinal Logistic regression showed that the obese girls had higher risks in depressive symptoms detection compared with normal weight girls ( OR=1.45, 95%CI=1.10-1.91, P <0.05).@*Conclusion@#The nutritional status of girls is better than boys, but the prevalence of depressive symptoms is higher than boys. The risk of depressive symptoms in girls increases with BMI.