Dynapenic abdominal obesity and the risk of depressive symptoms in middle-aged and older Chinese adults: Evidence from a national cohort study

Population-based evidence on the relationship between dynapenic abdominal obesity and depressive symptoms is rare. We aimed to prospectively investigate the relationship between dynapenic abdominal obesity and depressive symptoms among middle-aged and older Chinese adults. A total of 9322 participants free of depressive symptoms in the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study were included. The participants were divided into four groups: non-dynapenic/non-abdominal obesity (ND/NAO), non-dynapenic/abdominal obesity (ND/AO), dynapenic/non-abdominal obesity (D/NAO) and dynapenic/abdominal obesity (D/AO) according to the sex-specific grip strength (<28 kg for men and <18 kg for women) and waist circumference (≥85 cm for men and ≥80 cm for women) that in line with the Chinese criteria. Depressive symptoms was defined as a score of ≥12 for the 10-item Center for Epidemiological Studies Depression Scale. Logistic regression model was used to explore the association between dynapenic abdominal obesity and depressive symptoms. After an approximately 3-year of follow-up, 1810 participants (19.4 %) developed depressive symptoms. The multivariable-adjusted odds ratio for the D/AO versus ND/NAO was 1.61 (95 % CI: 1.31–1.98) for depressive symptoms. In addition, this relationship was more profound in participants aged<60 years (OR = 2.27, 95 % CI: 1.60–3.22) than participants aged ≥60 (OR = 1.36, 95 % CI: 1.05–1.77; P-interaction = 0.04). However, dynapenic obesity (defined by body mass index) was not linked to depressive symptoms. Causal link and residual confounding were not addressed because of the observational study design. Dynapenic abdominal obesity was associated with an increased risk of depressive symptoms, especially among those aged<60 years.