The study found only tobacco use and hypertension were worse on the heart than depression.
Depression can pose as much a risk for cardiovascular (CV) disease as obesity and high cholesterol—especially in men—according to a new study from Germany.
Researchers from the Helmholtz Zentrum München, the Technical University of Munich, and the German Center for Cardiovascular Disease published a study in the journal Atherosclerosis that examined the effects of depression on CV risk relative to other factors, such as exposure to tobacco smoke, high levels of low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol, obesity, and hypertension.
When a person has depression, both mood and body function are affected, and many patients who suffer from diabetes or CV disease have mental health conditions that inhibit the ability to exercise or stay with a medication regimen.
In comparing the risk posed by depression, relative to other known factors, the question becomes: “How big a role does each factor play?”
The researchers examined data from 3428 male patients aged 45 to 74 years over a 10-year period, with data drawn from a large population health study in Europe. Results showed that while smoking and hypertension pose greater risks than depression, being obese or having high cholesterol posed about the same risk. Depression was blamed for 15% of CV deaths, the study found.
“We invested a great deal of time in this work, just due to the long observation panel,” Karl-Heinz Ladwig, the study’s lead author, said in a statement. “Our data show that depression has a medium effect size within the range of major, non-congenital risk factors for cardiovascular diseases."
He said that in high-risk patients, physicians should automatically screen for depression—a recommendation that is consistent with a new guideline from the American Diabetes Association, which calls for better integration of behavioral health assessments into care.
Reference
Ladwig KH, Baumert J, Marten-Mittag B, et al. Room for depressed and exhausted mood as a risk predictor for all-cause and cardiovascular mortality beyond the contribution of the classical somatic risk factors in men. Atherosclerosis, 2016. DOI: 10.1016/j.atherosclerosis.2016.12.003.
Research Points to Potential MCIDs in Diabetes Distress Scale–17
November 29th 2023Researchers identified a value of at least 0.25 to be a minimal clinically important difference (MCID) in diabetes distress, and MCID values of 0.38 and 0.39 for emotional and interpersonal distress subscales and physician and regimen distress subscales, respectively.
Read More
For National Women’s Health Week, One Company Emphasizes Cardiovascular Risk Management
May 10th 2022On this episode of Managed Care Cast, we speak with Joanne Armstrong, MD, MPH, vice president and chief medical officer for Women’s Health and Genomics at CVS Health, on the distinct pathophysiology of cardiovascular disease in women and how her own health experiences have influenced her perspective on cardiovascular disease management.
Listen
In this interview with The American Journal of Managed Care®, Katie Queen, MD, addresses the complexity of obesity as a medical condition, pivoting to virtual care while ensuring that patients who lived in a rural location continued to receive adequate care, and the importance of integrating awareness of obesity and chronic disease prevention into local food culture.
Read More
How Can Employers Leverage the DPP to Improve Diabetes Rates?
February 15th 2022On this episode of Managed Care Cast, Jill Hutt, vice president of member services at the Greater Philadelphia Business Coalition on Health, explains the Coalition’s efforts to reduce diabetes rates through the Diabetes Prevention Program (DPP).
Listen
Study Reveals Factors That Further Increase Colorectal Cancer Risk for Adults With T2D
November 14th 2023The strongest associations between diabetes and colorectal cancer risk were observed in participants with a recent diabetes diagnosis and those who had not undergone recent colonoscopy, underscoring the significance of cancer screening.
Read More