Depression and body mass index, a u-shaped association

BMC Public Health

Table 1 Selected characteristics of the sample, and the association with BMI^b)

Variable	Value	Total (N)	%	Under-weight (%)	Normal weight (%)	Over-weight (%)	Obese (%)	P
Gender	Male	21181	48.65	1.11	47.70	41,7	9.49	0.000
	Female	22083	50.72	2.55	56.86	28.97	11.61
Age	20–29	6027	14.27	4.05	70.42	20.97	4.56	0.000
	30–39	8649	20.47	1.72	56.89	32.18	9.21
	40–49	8526	20.18	1.15	53.00	35.16	10.68
	50–59	7908	18.72	0.81	43.56	41.79	13.66
	60–69	5590	13.23	0.91	39.84	44.35	10.82
	70+	5274	12.48	2.01	43.08	42.78	12.53
Education	Preschool only	6938	15.93	1.90	40.83	40.28	16.98
	High school lower level	6851	15.74	1.72	46.08	38.50	13.69	0.000
	High school medium level	3347	7.69	2.38	55.46	32.38	9.78
	High school high level	15799	36.29	2.00	54.59	34.29	9.12
	University/college	9668	22.21	1.46	60.36	31.71	6.46
Ethnicity	Dutch	37481	86.66	1.79	52.29	35.47	10.45	0.000
	Foreign/western	3392	7.84	2.09	54.57	33.37	9.96
	Foreign/non-western	2390	5.52	2.47	50.59	33.64	13.31
Year of survey	2001	6861	15.86	1.81	53.29	35.48	9.63	0.009
	2002	6942	16.05	2.03	53.13	35.00	9.84
	2003	6896	15.94	1.97	51.60	35.77	10.66
	2004	7897	18.25	1.77	51.64	35.49	11.09
	2005	7559	17.47	1.79	53.18	34.13	10.09
	2006	7109	16.43	1.74	51.48	35.39	11.38

^a) All associations were examined with χ² analyses
^b) BMI Categories: Underweight (14–18.5 kg/m²), Normal weight (18.5–25 kg/m²), Overweight (25–30 kg/m²), Obesity (30–60 kg/m²).

ISSN: 1471-2458