The triple threat for chronic disease: obesity, race, and depression.

Stecker T, Fortney JC, Steffick DE, Prajapati S. The triple threat for chronic disease: obesity, race, and depression. Psychosomatics. 2006 Nov 1; 47(6):513-8.

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Abstract:

The authors investigated the interrelationships between race, obesity, depression, and chronic disease by abstracting data from all primary-care patients seen at a family-medicine clinic over a 3-year period. A total of 8,197 patients were included in the analysis. Sixty-three percent of patients were either overweight (26%) or obese (37%). African-American race, obesity, and having a diagnosis of depression each independently and significantly increased the likelihood of having a chronic disease. Also, these risk factors interacted to create an increased likelihood of disease prevalence. Thus, obesity, race, and depression interacted to create a "triple threat" of developing certain chronic diseases.