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From the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for Health Statistics.
Address correspondence to Michael E. Mussolino, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for Health Statistics, 3311 Toledo Road, Room 6431, Hyattsville, MD 20782. E-mail: MMussolino{at}cdc.gov
| ABSTRACT |
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METHODS: Data are from a nationally representative sample of 5,171 people aged 20 to 39 years from the Third National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey. Total proximal femoral BMD was measured using dual energy x-ray absorptiometry. MDE and dysthymia were measured using the Diagnostic Interview Schedule.
RESULTS: MDE was associated with lower BMD in multivariate models in men (mean BMD = 1.038 vs. 1.068 g/cm2; odds ratio (OR) per 1 SD decline in BMD = 1.65, 95% confidence interval (CI) = 1.082.52; p = 0.02) but not in women (mean BMD = 0.982 vs. 0.979 g/cm2; OR = 0.96, 95% CI = 0.711.30; p = .79). The same divergence by gender was seen for dysthymia.
CONCLUSION: The relationship between BMD and MDE or dysthymia in young adults varies by gender.
Key Words: bone mineral density; depression, dysthymia, representative sample, young adults.
Abbreviations: MDE = major depressive episode;; BMD = bone mineral density;; NHANES III = Third National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey;; DIS = Diagnostic Interview Schedule.
| INTRODUCTION |
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Most of the previous studies examined the issue in middle-aged or older adults, and in five of the studies the mean age was about 60 years or older (3,6,7,9,11). There are few data on the BMD and depression relationship in younger women, and to our knowledge, this relationship has not been examined in young men. There is currently great interest in identifying factors that are associated with BMD in younger individuals because these factors may be important for attainment of peak bone mass (12). The Third National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES III), a large-scale national study, provides an opportunity to investigate whether major depressive episode (MDE) and dysthymia are associated with lower BMD in a representative sample of men and women aged 20 to 39 years. Unlike some previous studies that examined subjects in institutional settings, our study provides a wider variation in the level of depression among subjects who met the full criteria for MDE and dysthymia. Thus, our results may be more broadly generalizable than some of the previous studies.
| MATERIALS AND METHODS |
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Bone Mineral Density Measurement
BMD was measured by trained examiners in mobile examination centers. Total proximal femoral BMD expressed in grams of bone mineral content per area of square centimeters was measured by dual energy x-ray absorptiometry (Hologic QDR-1000; Hologic, Inc., Waltham, MA). This is the standard technique for measuring areal BMD. Scans were reviewed by consultants at the Mayo Clinic, Rochester, MN, for quality control (14).
Mood Disorders
The DIS (15) is a structured psychiatric interview schedule developed for use by trained lay interviewers with versions that employ the same Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders Third Edition (DSM-III) and DSM Revised Edition (DSM-III-R) as used by clinicians (16,17). The DSM-III version of the DIS was used in the NHANES III. The DIS was administered by trained interviewers in the mobile examination centers, where privacy could be ensured.
In the present study, data from the DIS were used to assess the prevalence of those who had ever experienced two mood disorders: MDE and dysthymia. The definitions of MDE and dysthymia used in our study were based on preset diagnostic criteria from the National Institute of Mental Health for these conditions that are incorporated into the DIS and that allow these diagnoses to closely follow DSM-III guidelines. MDE was defined as persistent depressed mood: ("In your lifetime, have you ever had 2 weeks or more during which you felt sad, blue, depressed, or when you lost all interest and pleasure in things that you cared about or enjoyed?"). In addition, at least four of the following eight symptom groups must be present: change in appetite or weight, sleep disturbance, changes in psychomotor activity, loss of ability to experience pleasure and interest, fatigue, feelings of worthlessness or guilt, difficulty in concentrating, and preoccupation with death or a wish to die. Dysthymia was defined as a chronic depressed mood: ("Have you had 2 years or more in your life when you felt depressed or sad almost all the time, even if you felt OK sometimes?"). In addition, at least three of seven symptom groups must be present (these groups are the same as the second through eighth symptom groups listed above for MDE). Thus, those with dysthymia had symptoms characteristic of MDE for a longer period of time, but these symptoms were not necessarily of sufficient severity and/or frequency to meet the criteria for MDE. Persons can be independently diagnosed with either MDE or dysthymia or can be diagnosed with both disorders. Diagnosis of one does not preclude diagnosis of the other (13,18). Additional analyses were also conducted with MDE or dysthymia categorized into symptom groups (range 09 groups). This variable was defined as the number of positive symptom groups listed for MDE plus an additional dysphoria symptom indicator. Dysphoria was defined as "dysphoric mood or loss of interest or pleasure in all or almost all usual activities and pastimes." Further details regarding how the DIS was administered and the diagnosis of these mood disorders have been published elsewhere (13,15).
Other Baseline Variables
We controlled for relevant established risk factors related to BMD (2) in our main analyses. Information on smoking status (current, former, never), alcohol consumption (drinks per month), physical activity, self-assessed health status, food energy, calcium consumption, protein intake, weight history including maximum weight, and chronic conditions related to secondary osteoporosis were obtained by interview, and weight and height were measured at the medical examination. The nutritional variables were determined using a 24-hour recall. The chronic conditions variable was based on self-reported doctors diagnoses of congestive heart failure, stroke, chronic bronchitis, asthma, arthritis, goiter, other thyroid disease, or diabetes.
Statistical Analysis
Statistical analyses were performed using linear regression procedures in SAS (19) and SUDAAN (20). Sample weights were used when calculating point estimates, so estimates are representative of the civilian, noninstitutionalized US population at the time of NHANES III. All numbers reported in the text and tables are weighted except for sample size, which was included to give the actual number of participants. The Kolmogorov D statistic indicated that BMD was not normally distributed (p < .01). However, results were unchanged after we used a logarithmic transformation of BMD. Therefore, we report BMD results that have not been transformed, which is in accordance with presentation of results in the vast majority of previously published analyses of BMD. Weighted multivariate regression analyses were performed using BMD as a continuous variable. Odds ratios were also calculated by comparing people with BMD values at 1 SD below the mean to those with the mean BMD value. The interaction between gender and depression was significant (p = .0148). Thus, all models were stratified by gender. All models were adjusted for age, race-ethnicity, and the established risk factors for low BMD listed earlier, unless otherwise indicated.
| RESULTS |
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10% than those with no history of MDE. Men with MDE had mean proximal femoral BMD that was 5.1% lower than men without MDE. Women with MDE were more likely to report weight loss from maximum weight of
10% than those without MDE. No differences in BMD were found for women regardless of MDE history. Findings were similar when persons were classified according to dysthymia status.
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| DISCUSSION |
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There are several direct pathways through which depression or dysthymia could lower proximal femoral BMD. For example, persistently elevated plasma cortisol levels have been associated with clinical depression (4) and also with low BMD (21). Elevated plasma cortisol levels in depression have been associated with hypothalamicpituitaryadrenocortical axis disturbances (22), diminished glucose tolerance (23), and increased adrenal gland volume (24). Thus, it can be hypothesized that persistently elevated plasma cortisol levels in depressed patients may be associated with enhanced bone metabolism, particularly in the presence of chronic hypercortisolemia (4). Other processes may include hyperprolactinemia, hypogonadism, increased interleukin activity, and calcium imbalance (25).
Depression and dysthymia may also operate indirectly in that their presence may affect behaviors, which may in turn result in lower BMD. For example, depression has been found to be associated with increases in smoking and alcohol use and with decreases in physical activity (2629). In addition, both depression and lowered BMD or osteoporosis have been linked to deficits of n-3 fatty acids, so that the relationship between BMD, osteoporosis, and depression could be jointly explained, at least in part, by reduced intake of these fatty acids (30,31).
Our results indicate that there is a divergence in the relationship between decreased bone density and MDE or dysthymia by gender, but the reason for this divergence is not obvious. There are, however, several possible explanations. One such explanation concerns gender differences in the reporting of mood disorders. We found that the prevalence rates for MDE and dysthymia were approximately twice as high for women compared with men. Similar findings were reported elsewhere (18,32). There is a body of literature that supports the idea of response bias in reports of mental illness (3336). In specific, women may be more open to reporting such symptomatology, so that the higher prevalence rates of MDE and dysthymia seen in women in our study could reflect inclusion of women with a milder degree of these mood disorders. Conversely, men who report such symptomatology may represent a more concentrated set of true positives, ie, persons who are actually experiencing major depression. Although this is clearly speculative, it would offer one explanation for the differing pattern of results. Another possible explanation is that depression has more of an impact on physical activity or diet among men than women.
Unlike a previous study (11), we did not observe a divergence between bone density and MDE by raceethnicity, suggesting that the effect is the same in all three raceethnicity groups. The discrepancy in results could be due to differences in the samples used in the two studies, eg, the present study focused on young adults, whereas the previous study focused on the elderly.
Our study has the advantage of being based on a representative sample that included a relatively large number of subjects with a clinical diagnosis of MDE compared with other studies. Thus, our results may be more broadly generalizable than those of previous studies. Our study is the first to look at the BMDdepression relationship in younger individuals and includes a wider selection of mood disorder outcomes than some previous studies that examined the issue in institutionalized patients. However, our study has several limitations. It is cross-sectional in nature, and as such, cannot provide definitive evidence that MDE or dysthymia caused the lower BMD levels observed in male subjects. The threshold effect that we observed between MDE and bone density in men is suggestive in this regard, but it is also possible that self-selection played a role, eg, those with MDE or dysthymia already had lower BMD before the depressive episode. However, results did not change when we included self-reported health status or presence of chronic conditions in the analysis, which suggests that the relationship between MDE and dysthymia in men is not due to differences in health status.
We conclude that MDE and dysthymia are associated with significantly lower proximal femoral BMD in young men, but not in young women. The relationship was stronger with dysthymia, the more chronic mood disorder. The association in men remained when the total number of positive symptoms of MDE and dysthymia were treated as a continuous variable. We also found evidence of a threshold effect. Men with more positive symptoms (59) had lower BMD levels than those with fewer or no symptoms. This finding may have public health significance, given the great interest in identifying factors that are associated with attaining and maintaining peak bone mass and the dearth of information about risk factors for low bone density in young men. In addition, proximal femoral BMD is a strong predictor of hip fracture, the most devastating consequence of osteoporosis from a public health standpoint. Additional large-scale studies of the BMDdepression relationship are warranted, to further explore the divergence in results between young men and young women and to further clarify the relationship in older adults as well.
Received for publication September 4, 2003.
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