Emotional Support, Depressive Symptoms, and Age-Related Alterations in Male Body Composition: Cross-Sectional Findings from the Men's Health 40+ Study

Abstract

More depressive symptoms and low emotional support have been related to worse body composition. Body composition significantly deteriorates in aging men. Therefore, we aimed to examine whether high emotional support and low depressive symptoms are associated with better body composition and a decelerated age-related deterioration of body composition in aging men. A cross-sectional analysis including 269 self-reporting healthy men aged between 40 and 75 years living in the German-speaking part of Switzerland was conducted. Participants completed questionnaires on emotional support and depressive symptoms. The depression screening instrument was used to form a group with low (N = 225) and moderate (N = 44) depressive symptoms. Body mass index (BMI) and waist-to-hip ratio (WHR) were measured, and cell proportion (CP), fat mass (FM), and water balance (WB) were obtained using bioelectrical impedance analysis. Age-related associations emerged for WHR, CP, FM, and WB, but not for BMI. Emotional support was negatively associated with BMI, WHR, and WB, and only trend-wise with CP and FM. Group comparisons revealed that more depressive symptoms were associated with lower levels of CP and higher levels of WB. Both emotional support and depressive symptoms were significant moderators of the association between age and specific measures of body composition such as CP, FM, and WB. However, after correction for multiple testing for moderation analyses only the moderation effects of depressive symptoms on the association between age and WB and CP remained significant. Low depressive symptoms were associated with a better body composition as well as a decelerated decline in body composition and the role of emotional support acting as a buffer against age-related deterioration of body composition merits further investigation.

Keywords: bioelectrical impedance analysis; body composition; depression; emotional support; men; psychosocial resilience factors; sarcopenia.

Figure 1

Panels (A–D) represent the associations between emotional support and body composition. Panel (A) shows the association between emotional support and waist-to-hip ratio. Panel (B) shows the association between emotional support and cell proportion. Panel (C) shows the association between emotional support and fat mass. Panel (D) shows the association between emotional support and water balance.

Figure 2

Panels (A–D) represent moderation plots of the relationship between age and body composition moderated by emotional support. Dotted lines represent the association between age and a measure of body composition for average emotional support. Solid/dashed lines represent the association between age and a measure of body composition for emotional support one standard deviation (SD) below/above the mean. Panel (A) represents the moderation effect of emotional support on the association between age and cell proportion. Panel (B) represents the moderation effect of emotional support on the association between age and fat mass. Panel (C) represents the moderation effect of emotional support on the association between age and extracellular mass-body cell mass ratio. Panel (D) represents the moderation effect of emotional support on the association between age and water balance.

Figure 3

Panels (A–C) represent the differences in measures of body composition between the low (< 16 depressive symptoms) and moderate (≥16 depressive symptoms) depressive symptoms group. Panel (A) shows a comparison of cell proportion between groups. Panel (B) shows a comparison of fat mass between groups. Panel (C) shows a comparison of water balance between groups. Legend: ^* and ^** indicate significance at p < 0.05 and p < 0.01.

Figure 4

Panel (A–D) represent moderation plots of the relationship between age and body composition moderated by depressive symptoms. Dotted lines represent the association between age and a measure of body composition for the low depressive symptoms group (<16 depressive symptoms). Solid lines represent the association between age and a measure of body composition for the moderate depressive symptoms group (≥16 depressive symptoms). Panel (A) represents the moderation effect of depressive symptoms on the association between age and cell proportion. Panel (B) represents the moderation effect of depressive symptoms on the association between age and fat mass. Panel (C) represents the moderation effect of depressive symptoms on the association between age and extracellular mass-body cell mass ratio. Panel (D) represents the moderation effect of depressive symptoms on the association between age and water balance.