ArticleHealth psychology : official journal of the Division of Health Psychology, American Psychological Association2019
Comparing anxiety and depression to obesity and smoking as predictors of major medical illnesses and somatic symptoms.
Article in Health psychology : official journal of the Division of Health Psychology, American Psychological Association, 2019. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 30 papers.
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30 citing papers in PubMed, 71 citations in OpenAlex.
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- A social-ecological examination of physical activity and fitness among Chinese university students: a cross-sectional path analysis.Frontiers in sports and active living · 2026Article
- Causal Relationship Between Anxiety Disorders and Cancers: A Bidirectional Two-Sample Mendelian Randomization Study.Brain and behavior · 2025Article
- Review
- Association of psychiatric history with hypertension among adults who present for metabolic and bariatric surgery.Surgery for obesity and related diseases : official journal of the American Society for Bariatric Surgery · 2025Article
- Depression and physical multimorbidity: A cohort study of physical health condition accrual in UK Biobank.PLoS medicine · 2025Article
- Psychological factors associated with Long COVID: a systematic review and meta-analysis.EClinicalMedicine · 2024Article
- The effect of pressing needle therapy on depression, anxiety, and sleep for patients in convalescence from COVID-19.Frontiers in neurology · 2024Article
- Breathing Practices for Stress and Anxiety Reduction: Conceptual Framework of Implementation Guidelines Based on a Systematic Review of the Published Literature.Brain sciences · 2023Review
- Physical Activity and Self-Perception of Mental and Physical Quality of Life during Pregnancy: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.Journal of clinical medicine · 2023Review
- Sleep timing, sleep regularity, and psychological health in early late life women: Findings from the Study of Women's Health Across the Nation (SWAN).Sleep health · 2023Article
- Psychological and biological mechanisms linking trauma with cardiovascular disease risk.Translational psychiatry · 2023Review
- The critical role of physical frailty and function on depressive symptoms among community-dwelling older adults in China: A cross-sectional study.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2023Article
- Factors associated with hopelessness, depression and anxiety in the Honduran-Central America population during the COVID-19 pandemic.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2023Article
- Article
- Female sex and femininity independently associate with common somatic symptom trajectories.Psychological medicine · 2022Article
- Nature-Based Meditation, Rumination and Mental Wellbeing.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2022Article
- Association of Depression and Anxiety With the Accumulation of Chronic Conditions.JAMA network open · 2022Article
- Risk factors for worsening of somatic symptom burden in a prospective cohort during the COVID-19 pandemic.Frontiers in psychology · 2022Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
2 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
objectiveAnxiety and depression predict poor physical health longitudinally, but are neglected in primary care settings compared to other risk factors such as obesity and smoking. Further, anxiety has been less commonly studied than depression, and whether anxiety has unique predictive effects for physical health is unknown. We compared anxiety and depression to obesity and smoking as predictors of physical health indices and examined unique predictive effects of anxiety and depression.
methodUsing data from the Health and Retirement study, a US population-based cohort study of older adults, we tested longitudinal associations of anxiety and depression symptoms with onset of self-reported physical health indices (N = 15,418; M age = 68). Medical illnesses (heart disease, stroke, arthritis, high blood pressure, diabetes, and cancer) and somatic symptoms (stomach problems, shortness of breath, dizziness, back pain, headache, pain, and eyesight difficulties) were assessed on two occasions over four years. Anxiety and depression were measured at the initial time point and tested as predictors of medical illness and somatic symptom onset.
resultsAnxiety and depression symptoms predicted greater incidence of nearly all medical illnesses and somatic symptoms. Effects were as strong as or stronger than those of obesity and smoking, and anxiety and depression independently increased risk for most physical health indices assessed.
conclusionsFindings suggest that anxiety and depression are as strongly predictive of poor future physical health as obesity and smoking and that anxiety is independently linked to poor physical health. Greater attention should be paid towards these conditions in primary care. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved).
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