Citation

Pomp S, Keller S, Maddock JE. Asia Pac. J. Public Health 2012; ePub(ePub): ePub.

Affiliation

Freie Universität, Berlin, Germany.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2012, Asia-Pacific Academic Consortium for Public Health, Publisher SAGE Publishing)

DOI

10.1177/1010539512448523

PMID

22743856

Abstract

BACKGROUND: The aim of this cross-sectional study was to examine how depressive symptoms are associated with health behaviors, stress, and self-assessed health status in the population of Hawai'i. METHODS: Randomized phone calls were made using computer assistant telephone interviews. A regression analysis with depressive symptoms as the outcome and sociodemographic variables, health behaviors, stress, and health status as predictors was conducted in 1483 adults. RESULTS: Depressive symptoms were associated with stress (β = .32), alcohol consumption (β = .19), health status (β = -.10), fast food consumption (β = .06), avoidance of fat (β = -.06), and fruit and vegetable consumption (β = .06). Moreover, depressive symptoms were linked to being female (β = .06), being single (β = -.06), and being Caucasian compared with being Native Hawaiian (β = -.06) or Japanese (β = -.08). The overall explained variance was 22%. CONCLUSION: Depressive symptoms correlate with health risk behaviors and might be considered as a risk for chronic diseases.

Language: en