Association of depression with incident sarcopenia and modified effect from healthy lifestyle: The first longitudinal evidence from the CHARLS

Abstract

BackgroundThe prospective association of depression with incident sarcopenia remains unknown, as does whether such an association is modified by a healthy lifestyle. Thus, the goal of this study was to determine whether depression is independently related to the risk of developing sarcopenia and to detect the effect of a healthy lifestyle on its modification. MethodsThe prospective study included 9486 participants from the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study who were followed from 2011 to 2015. We calculated a lifestyle score based on body mass index, drinking, smoking, social activities, and sleeping time. Cox proportional hazards regression models with hazard ratios (HRs) and 95 % confidence intervals were used to estimate the effect of depression on the risk of sarcopenia and the modification effect of lifestyle (CIs). ResultsDuring a mean of 3.53 years of follow-up, 1373 individuals developed sarcopenia. After adjusting for confounding factors, depression was significantly associated with a higher risk of incident sarcopenia (HR = 1.34; 95 % CI: 1.19, 1.50). In addition, we observed that individuals adhering to a healthy lifestyle had an 18 % lower risk of sarcopenia onset, compared with individuals with an unhealthy lifestyle. LimitationsWe couldn't completely rule out potential residual bias due to its observational design. Second, ascertainment of the history of diseases in CHARLS was based on self-reported information, which may introduce recall bias or misclassification. ConclusionsDepression was associated with a higher risk of sarcopenia in Chinese adults, and such a risk may be alleviated by adhering to a healthy lifestyle.