Does Self-Reported BMI Modify the Association Between Stroke and Depressive Symptoms?

Background: Depressive symptoms are common in stroke survivors. While obesity has been associated with stroke and depression, its influence on the association between stroke and depressive symptoms is unknown.

Methods: Cross-sectional data from 2015 to 2016 Canadian Community Health Survey was used. History of stroke was self-reported and our outcome of interest was depressive symptoms in the prior 2 weeks, measured using the 9-item Patient Health Questionnaire. Self-reported body mass index (BMI) was modeled as cubic spline terms to allow for nonlinear associations. We used multivariable logistic regression to evaluate the association between stroke and depressive symptoms and added an interaction term to evaluate the modifying effect of BMI.

Results: Of the 47,521 participants, 694 (1.0%) had a stroke and 3314 (6.5%) had depressive symptoms. Those with stroke had a higher odds of depressive symptoms than those without (aOR = 3.13, 95% CI 2.48, 3.93). BMI did not modify the stroke-depressive symptoms association (P = 0.242) despite the observed variation in stroke-depressive symptoms association across BMI categories,: normal BMI [18.5-25 kg/m2] (aOR = 3.91, 95% CI 2.45, 6.11), overweight [25-30 kg/m2] (aOR = 2.63, 95% CI 1.58, 4.20), and obese [>30 kg/m2] (aOR = 2.76, 95% CI 1.92, 3.94). Similar results were found when depressive symptoms were modeled as a continuous measure.

Conclusion: The association between stroke and depressive symptoms is not modified by BMI, needing additional work to understand the role of obesity on depression after stroke.