BACKGROUND: An inverse relationship between cholesterol level and the degree of depressive symptoms was found in several studies targeted to Westerners. But, other studies failed to replicate this finding, giving diverse opinion on this matter. The objective of this study was to investigate the association between the degree of depressive symptomps and lipid level, total calorie intake and fat intake respectively in adults screened in a health promotion center in Korea. METHOD: The study group consisted of 352 men and women who visited the Health Promotion Center of Seoul National University Hospital from June to August in 1998. Their depressive symptoms were measured by Korean version of the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale(CES-D). Lipid level was measured by enzymatic methods with fasting blood specimen. Total calorie and fat intake were calculated from a self-reported questionnaire on the types and amount of food. RESULTS: Depressive symptoms were not significantly related to lipid levels, total calorie intake, fat intake, age, exercise, BMI, smoking or alcohol consumption(p>0.05). But sex(P<0.05), marital status(P<0.05), educational level(P<0.05) and average income(P<0.05) were significantly related to depressive symptoms in the whole study group(n=352). Educational level(P<0.05), menopausal status(P<0.05) and LDL cholesterol(P<0.05) were significantly related to depressive symptoms only in women(n=185). However in multivariate models which adjusted for confounding factors these associations were not found(p>0.05). CONCLUSION: In contrast to the results of previous studies, no significant association between the degree of depressive symptoms and lipid levels, total calorie intake and fat intake respectively were found in Korean adults after adjusting for several factors related to health.
Adult* ; Cholesterol ; Depression* ; Epidemiologic Studies ; Fasting ; Female ; Health Promotion ; Humans ; Korea ; Male ; Seoul ; Smoke ; Smoking ; Surveys and Questionnaires