Association of depression and anxiety with somatic diseases: negative lifestyle factors impact

Abstract

To assess the associations of various depression and anxiety phenotypes with manifestations of different somatic disorders and negative lifestyle factors. The study involved 5116 people. In the online questionnaire, participants provided information about age, sex, height and weight, as well as a history of smoking, alcohol use, physical activity and diagnoses/symptoms of various physical diseases. Self-questions based on the DSM-5 criteria and the online version of the HADS were used to screen for phenotypes of affective and anxiety disorders in a population sample. An association of both subclinical and clinical depressive symptoms on HADS-D was noted for respondents with weight gain (OR 1.43; CI: 1.29-1.58, p<0.05 and OR 1,CI: 1.05-1.52, p<0.05, respectively), increased BMI (OR 1.36; CI: 1.24-1.48, p<0.05 OR 1.27; CI: 1.09-1.47, p<0.05 respectively), and decreased physical activity (OR 1.67; CI: 1.35-2.07, p<0.05 and OR 2.35; CI: 1.59-3.57, p<0.05, respectively) at the time of testing. The phenotypes of depression, anxiety disorders, and bipolar disorder by DSM criteria were associated with a history of smoking. (OR 1.37; CI: 1.18-1.62, p<0.001; OR 1.36; CI: 1.24-1.48, p<0.05 and OR 1.59; CI: 1.26-2.01, p<0.001, respectively). For higher BMI the association was reported only for the bipolar depression phenotype (OR 1.16; CI: 1.04-1.29, p<0.05), and with a decrease in physical activity - for the phenotypes of major depression and anxiety disorders (OR 1.27; CI: 1.07-1.52, p<0.05 and OR 1.61; CI: 1.31-1.99, p<0.001, respectively). A significant association with various somatic disorders was noted for all phenotype variants, but to the greatest extent for those based on DSM criteria. The study confirmed the association of negative external factors and various somatic disorders with depression. These associations were noted for various phenotypes of anxiety and depression, both in severity and structure, and may be due to complex mechanisms that have shared biological and environmental mechanisms.