| Title: | Depression and physical multimorbidity: A cohort study of physical health condition accrual in UK Biobank |
| Journal: | PLOS Medicine |
| Published: | 13 Feb 2025 |
| Pubmed: | https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/39946376/ |
| DOI: | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.1004532 |
Publication 14404
WARNING: the interactive features of this website use CSS3, which your browser does not support. To use the full features of this website, please update your browser.
Abstract
BACKGROUND: Depression is associated with a range of adverse physical health outcomes. We aimed to quantify the association between depression and the subsequent rate of accrual of long-term physical health conditions in middle and older age.</p>
METHODS AND FINDINGS: We included 172,556 participants from the UK Biobank (UKB) cohort study, aged 40-71 years old at baseline assessment (2006-2010), who had linked primary care data available. Using self-report, primary care, hospital admission, cancer registry, and death records, we ascertained 69 long-term physical health conditions at both UKB baseline assessment and during a mean follow-up of 6.9 years. We used quasi-Poisson models to estimate associations between history of depression at baseline and subsequent rate of physical condition accrual. Within our cohort, 30,770 (17.8%) had a history of depression. Compared to those without depression, participants with depression had more physical conditions at baseline (mean 2.9 [SD 2.3] versus 2.1 [SD 1.9]) and accrued additional physical conditions at a faster rate (mean 0.20 versus 0.16 additional conditions/year during follow-up). After adjustment for age and sex, participants with depression accrued physical morbidities at a faster rate than those without depression (RR 1.32, 95% confidence interval [CI] [1.31, 1.34]). After adjustment for all sociodemographic characteristics, the rate of condition accrual remained higher in those with versus without depression (RR 1.30, 95% CI [1.28, 1.32]). This association attenuated but remained statistically significant after additional adjustment for baseline condition count and social/lifestyle factors (RR 1.10, 95% CI [1.09, 1.12]). The main limitation of this study is healthy volunteer selection bias, which may limit generalisability of findings to the wider population.</p>
CONCLUSIONS: Middle-aged and older adults with a history of depression have more long-term physical health conditions at baseline and accrue additional physical conditions at a faster rate than those without a history of depression. Our findings highlight the importance of integrated approaches to managing both mental and physical health outcomes.</p>
13 Keywords
- Adult
- Aged
- Biological Specimen Banks
- Cohort Studies
- Depression
- Female
- Health Status
- Humans
- Male
- Middle Aged
- Multimorbidity
- UK Biobank
- United Kingdom
10 Authors
- Kelly J. Fleetwood
- Bruce Guthrie
- Caroline A. Jackson
- Paul A. T. Kelly
- Stewart W. Mercer
- Daniel R. Morales
- John D. Norrie
- Daniel J. Smith
- Cathie Sudlow
- Regina Prigge
1 Application
| Application ID | Title |
|---|---|
| 57213 | Understanding the relationship between depression and trajectories of physical multimorbidity accrual: longitudinal analysis of UK Biobank data |
Enabling scientific discoveries that improve human health