Depression, quality of life, and lifestyle: chronoecological health watch in a community.

The objectives are to explore the possibility of preventive non-drug interventions on vascular disease risk by examining the associations among health-related lifestyle (HLS), disease-related illnesses (DRI), subjective quality of life (QOL), depression, and blood pressure (BP). A sample of 181 adults (73 men and 108 women, mean age 57.3 +/- 10.2 years, range 24-76 years) in Urausu, Hokkaido, Japan, wore an ambulatory BP monitor around the clock for seven consecutive days. They completed a health survey questionnaire with which their HLS and DRI were assessed. QOL and depression were rated on the Visual Analogue Scales and the Geriatric Depression Scale-Short Form, respectively. For each participant's systolic (S) and diastolic (D) BP and HR, the circadian MESOR, amplitude, and acrophase were calculated, using cosinor analysis. Associations among the variables were analyzed, using Pearson's correlation coefficient and Kendall's tau-b. DRI was positively associated with depression (P = 0.005) and with HLS (P = 0.001), and was negatively associated with QOL (P = 0.041). Depression showed a moderate and negative correlation with QOL (P < 0.001). As expected, Body Mass Index (BMI) was associated with higher DRI (P = 0.008), SBP (P < 0.001), and DBP (P = 0.002), and with less variation of SBP (P = 0.006) and DBP (P = 0.004). Obesity as assessed by BMI was found to be a good indicator of the circadian BP endpoints and illnesses, warranting further investigation into dietary intake and health outcomes. Depression was also found to be a useful indicator of DRI, HLS, and QOL.