Adiposity, Depression Symptoms and Inflammation in Hispanic/Latino Youth: Results from HCHS/SOL Youth

Background: Inflammation is implicated as one of many factors related to the development of chronic disease; thus, identifying its modifiable risk factors offers potential intervention targets to reduce risk. Purpose: To investigate whether depression and anxiety symptoms may indirectly affect high-sensitivity C-reactive protein (hs-CRP) and plasminogen activator inhibitor-1 (PAI-1) through sleep duration and adiposity (i.e., percentage body fat and waist circumference). Methods: Multiple regression analyses were performed on Hispanic Community Health Study/Study of Latinos Youth (ages 8-16 years) cross-sectional baseline data, which were weighted to adjust for sampling design. Data were collected at a clinical assessment, including fasting blood samples, self-report surveys, and objectively measured anthropometrics. Results: Adjusting for sociodemographic covariates, depression symptoms were associated with log hs-CRP (β =. 011, p =. 047) but not PAI-1 (p =. 285). Percentage body fat and waist circumference were positively related to depression symptoms (p =. 026 and p =. 028, respectively) and log hs-CRP (p <. 001 for both). When including adiposity in the hs-CRP model, the associations of depression symptoms with hs-CRP were attenuated and became nonsignificant. Monte Carlo confidence intervals (CIs) showed that the indirect effects from depression symptoms to CRP through percentage body fat (95% CI:. 0006,. 0119) and waist circumference (95% CI:. 0004,. 0109) were statistically significant. Conclusions: Results indicate that the association between psychological distress and inflammation may occur indirectly through adiposity in Hispanic/Latino children. If findings are replicated in causal designs, reducing depression symptoms and adiposity among Hispanic/Latino children may be avenues for primary prevention of inflammation in later years.