engleski

Depression and hopelessness as possible predictors of weight change among obese day-hospital patients: a 6-months follow-up study

Both depression and obesity are common problems and major public health concerns, highly associated with morbidity and mortality as well as with functional impairment and healthcare expenditure. The aim of our study was to evaluate whether initial depressive status could predict weight change among obese patients attending a structured weight loss program followed by regular monthly check-ups. Study included 130 Caucasian outpatients (31 men, 99 women), mean age 47.25 years, SD=12.106, range 23–78 years, attending a structured weight loss program at the Division of Endocrinology, University Hospital Centre Zagreb. None of the patients were suffering from severe mental illness and none were on antidepressant medication during the study period. At the baseline and after 6 months (4 to 8 months) we estimated anthropometric values. Baseline mean body mass was 124.84 kg (76.30 243 kg) ; after 6 months mean body mass was 117.61 kg (72.40-191.60 kg). In addition, baseline examination included two self-report instruments assessing patients' depressive status: the Depression Anxiety Stress Scale-21 (DASS-21 ; Lovibond & Lovibond 1995) and the Beck Hopelesness Scale (BHS ; Beck 1988). The Cronbach's alpha coefficients in the current study were 0.89 and 0.87, respectively. We compared the baseline and 6-month average weight of our patients, and the difference was statistically significant (t=6.483, p0.05). The mean scores on the DASS-21 depression subscale and the BHS scale were 12.36 (SD=12.347) and 5.11 (SD=4.568), respectively, suggesting mild levels of depression and hopelessness. Most importantly, none of the correlations of depression and hopelessness with weight change were significant (p>0.05). Our results indicate that patients have lost a significant amount of body weight, 6 months after attending the abovementioned structured weight- loss program. Furthermore, we did not find a significant association between baseline depressive symptoms and level of hopelessness with weight reduction 6 months after group treatment. Our weight loss program included multiple treatment interventions (nutritive, behavioural, counseling, exercises, educational, endocrinological treatment of vitamins and mineral deficiency or insufficiency, etc.), so the final weight change was the result of the complex interaction of all these parameters.

depression ; obesity ; hopelessness ; weight-loss program

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