Adiposity and Depressive Symptoms in Police Officers

Purpose To determine the association between measures of adiposity and depression in a sample of police officers. Methods This study was a cross sectional observational study of 115 police officers stratified by gender and selected at random from an urban police department. Measures of adiposity (Body Mass Index (BMI), abdominal height, and waist circumference) and depressive symptoms (Center for Epidemiological Studies Depression (CES-D) scale) were obtained during a clinic visit. One hundred and three officers (61 men and 42 women) had complete data and linear regression analysis was conducted separately for men and women. Covariate adjustments were made for age, alcohol use, years of police service, smoking, physical activity, fasting serum glucose, and marital status. Results We found statistically significant positive associations between the CES-D score and both BMI (p = 0.005) and abdominal height (p = 0.006) for men. No significant associations were found between CES-D score and adiposity in women (p =0.591 for BMI, p = 0.81 for abdominal height, p = 0.52 for waist circumference). Adjustment for covariates did not result in any meaningful change in the reported associations. Conclusion Results indicate a significant positive association between adiposity and depression among male police officers. The temporal sequence and additional physiological and psychological factors that might influence this association should be examined prospectively