DEPRESSIVE SYMPTOMS IN OVERWEIGHT AND OBESE OLDER ADULTS - A TEST OF THE JOLLY FAT HYPOTHESIS

The association between body weight and depressive symptoms in older a dults was examined in a population-based study of 2,245 noninstitution alized men and women aged 50 to 89 years living in Rancho Bernardo, Ca lifornia, U.S.A. The prevalence of Beck Depression Inventory scores gr eater than or equal to 13 was inversely associated with body weight in men, but not in women. Overweight and obese 50- to 69-yr-old women we re more depressed than women with a body mass index below 25 kg/m(2), but the difference was only marginally significant (p=0.09). When age, health status and medication use were controlled, the odds of being d epressed were 0.34 (p=0.004) in overweight men and 0.28 (p=0.09) in ob ese men, compared to men with a body mass index below 25 kg/m(2). In t his cohort, depression in men was inversely associated with body weigh t, supporting the ''Jolly Fat'' hypothesis. The likelihood that more s tigma is attached to excessive weight in women than men may account fo r the lack of an inverse association between weight and depression in women.