|
 The same wasn't true for men, however.
“The most surprising result may be the difference in the
relationship between adolescent overweight and later life depressive
symptoms by gender,” said lead author Melissa L. Martinson of the
University of Washington in Seattle.
The researchers used data from 10,000 people who graduated from high
school in Wisconsin in 1957. Study participants answered 20-question
surveys the year they graduated and again in 1964, 1975, 1993 and
2004, when they were about 65 years old.
Using high school yearbook photos, the researchers sorted the
students into four groups: underweight, normal weight, at risk for
overweight and overweight.
About 40% of the teens seemed to be normal weight, 36% were at risk
for being overweight, 10% were overweight and 10% were underweight.
By age 65, one third were obese, with 18% of men and 32% of women at
a normal weight. Most were in generally good health, with low rates
of drinking, smoking and inactivity.
Depression symptom scores were twice as high at age 65 for women who
had been overweight in high school than for those who had been
normal weight, even after accounting for adult weight status and
other health factors.
Those who had been underweight or at risk for being overweight did
not have higher rates of depression compared to those who had been
normal weight, the authors reported online March 13 in Age and
Ageing.
Obesity at age 65 was also tied to a higher rate of depressive
symptoms for women, but not for men.
“We are unable to directly assess the reasons behind the gender
difference in the results in this study, but previous research may
provide some clues,” Martinson told Reuters Health by email. “The
social stigma of adolescent overweight and the resulting low
self-esteem may be more damaging to girls than to boys, especially
girls from lower socioeconomic status families.”
She and her coauthor also found that women who were overweight in
high school and obese at age 65 were at the greatest risk for
depressive symptoms.
[to top of second column] |
“It has been known for some time that depression in adolescence is
associated with weight gain as an adult,” said Kristy Sanderson of
the Menzies Institute for Medical Research in Hobart, Australia, who
was not part of the new study. “This will at least in part be
explained by how strongly weight status tracks throughout life; once
you become overweight or obese you are very likely to stay that
way.”
“As depression and overweight/obesity are essentially life-long
conditions, it is then not surprising that their association would
persist over the life course,” she told Reuters Health by email.
Research suggests that women who do not meet conventional standards
of beauty and attractiveness experience social and economic
penalties, according to Christy M. Glass, a sociologist at Utah
State University in Logan who was also not part of the new study.
“Overweight adolescent girls may be excluded from friendship and
dating networks that privilege thinness, and later in life
overweight women may face bias and negative stereotypes from peers,
potential dating partners, colleagues and even employers,” Glass
told Reuters Health by email.
Overweight boys are more likely than overweight girls to participate
in extracurricular activities like sports and may be more successful
than overweight girls at securing strong social networks, she said.
“Older women and their doctors may benefit from discussing weight
status over the life-course, rather than simply current weight
status, when working together to plan a course of treatment for
health and mental health well-being,” Martinson said.
SOURCE: http://bit.ly/1RrZoPr
[© 2016 Thomson Reuters. All rights
reserved.] Copyright 2016 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published,
broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. |
