Association of Depression and Unhealthy Lifestyle Behaviors in Chinese Patients With Acute Coronary Syndromes

Purpose: This study sought to examine associations between depression and unhealthy lifestyle behaviors in Chinese patients with acute coronary syndromes (ACS). Methods: This cross-sectional study included 4043 ACS patients from 16 hospitals across China who participated in the I-Care (Integrating Depression Care in Acute Coronary Syndromes Patients) trial. Patients were enrolled between November 2014 and January 2017. Depression was assessed with the Patient Health Questionnaire-9 (PHQ-9). Five lifestyle behaviors were assessed: smoking, drinking, body mass index (BMI), physical activity, and sleep quality. Results: A total of 135 patients (3.3%) were considered clinically depressed (PHQ-9 >= 10). After adjusting for covariates, physical activity and sleep quality were inversely related to PHQ-9 scores. Adjusted logistic models showed that depressed patients were 1.7 times likely to be physically inactive (OR = 1.74; 95% CI, 1.15-2.64) and 4.6 times likely to have poor sleep quality (OR = 4.60; 95% CI, 3.07-6.88) compared with nondepressed patients. The association of depression with smoking, unhealthy drinking, and unhealthy BMI was not significant after adjustment for demographic characteristics. Higher depression scores were found to be associated with a greater number of unhealthy lifestyle behaviors (P for trend < .001). Conclusions: The association of depression and unhealthy lifestyles in post-ACS patients suggests that reducing depressive symptoms and improving healthy lifestyle behaviors could potentially improve clinical outcomes in this vulnerable patient population.