THE ASSOCIATION BETWEEN OBESITY AND THE OCCURRENCE OF DEPRESSION ACCORDING TO THE BIRLESON SCALE IN CHILDREN AGED 8-12 YEARS

*Diana Salem MD, Ahmad Chreitah PhD and Mazen Ghalia PhD

ABSTRACT

Background: Childhood obesity is one of the most important public health challenges of the current century. Childhood obesity, which may cause chronic diseases including diabetes, cardiovascular disease, fatty liver disease, cancer, and psychiatric diseases such as anxiety and depression, deserves more attention. However, there are few studies that shed light on the relationship between childhood obesity and psychiatric diseases. In the present study, we aimed to evaluate depression in obese children. Methods: One hundred and forty-one obese children (BMI > 95%) and 193 normal weight children (BMI 5th–85th %) aged 8–12 years were enrolled in this case-control study. To assess depression levels: Birleson Depression Inventory for Children was administered to both the obese and control groups. Results: There were no significant differences between the two study groups regarding age (1.3±10.57 years in the obese group, 1.5±10.17 years in the control group) (P=0.06) or gender (male/female ratio: 65/76 in the obese group vs. 85/108 in the control group) (P=0.7). A significant difference was clearly found in the BMI standard score (2.6±96.55 in the obese group vs. 21.1±57.55 in the control group) (P=0.0001). Obese subjects showed a significantly higher level of depressive symptoms (total Birleson score) (9.60±6.1 vs.7.11± 5.04) (P=0.0001) compared to the control group. Furthermore, Pearson correlation analysis showed a significantly positive relationship between increasing BMI and increasing Birleson Depression Inventory scores (Pearson correlation coefficient = 0.25) Conclusions: Our results indicate that obese children may suffer from depression more than their peers with normal weight, but not at a high rate because children in our society are exposed to many pressures and crises such as displacement and poverty, which makes it difficult to rely on obesity as the only and main factor in the occurrence of depression, especially since depression is a multifactorial disease. Therefore, it is necessary to investigate the mediating factors in the relationship between obesity and depression in children.

Keywords: Birleson scale; body mass index (BMI); childhood obesity; depression.