ArticleLipids in health and disease2022
Low cholesterol is not associated with depression: data from the 2005-2018 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey.
Article in Lipids in health and disease, 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 14 papers.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
14 citing papers in PubMed, 21 citations in OpenAlex.
- Associations of Midlife Vascular Risk Factors With Late-Life Depressive Symptoms: Findings From the ARIC Study.Journal of the American Heart Association · 2026Article
- LDL-C modifies the association between triglycerides and depression identified by threshold scanning in US adults.Scientific reports · 2026Article
- Interactive effects of high-density lipoprotein cholesterol and insulin resistance on depression: results from the NHANES (2005-2018).Lipids in health and disease · 2025Article
- Triglycerides, Cholesterol, and Depressive Symptoms Among Undergraduate Medical Students: A Cross-Sectional Study.Diseases (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Article
- Reducing LDL-Cholesterol to Very Low Levels: Sailing Between Established Benefits and Potential Risks.High blood pressure & cardiovascular prevention : the official journal of the Italian Society of Hypertension · 2025Review
- Association between depressive status and mild cognitive impairment in middle-aged and elderly Chinese adults from CHARLS study.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2025Article
- Curvilinear association between cardiometabolic index and depressive symptoms in individuals aged 45 and older: a cross-sectional study of CHARLS.Frontiers in public health · 2025Article
- Abnormalities of lipid metabolism in the progression and treatment of depression.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2025Review
- Association between depression and liver function biomarkers among US cancer survivors in NHANES 2005-2020.Scientific reports · 2024Article
- Impaired Cholesterol Metabolism, Neurons, and Neuropsychiatric Disorders.Experimental neurobiology · 2023Review
- Association of remnant cholesterol with depression among US adults.BMC psychiatry · 2023Article
- Psychological Status of the Participants in Alzheimer's Prevention Initiative Autosomal Dominant Alzheimer's Disease Colombia.Journal of Alzheimer's disease : JAD · 2023Article
- Lipids in major depressive disorder: new kids on the block or old friends revisited?Frontiers in psychiatry · 2023Review
- Pathophysiological mechanisms of post-myocardial infarction depression: a narrative review.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2023Review
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
4 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundAlthough high serum cholesterol is widely recognized as a major risk factor for heart disease, the health effects of low cholesterol are less clear. Several studies have found a correlation between low cholesterol and depression, but the results are inconsistent.
methodsData from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) 2005-2018 were utilized in this cross-sectional study. The analysis of the relationship between cholesterol and depression was performed at three levels: low total cholesterol, low high-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol and low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol. The inclusion criteria were as follows: (1) people with low (<4.14 mmol/L) or normal (4.14-5.16 mmol/L) total cholesterol for Sample 1; people with low (<1 mmol/L) or normal (≥1 mmol/L) HDL cholesterol levels for Sample 2; and people with low (<1.8 mmol/L) or normal (1.8-3.4 mmol/L) LDL cholesterol levels for Sample 3; and (2) people who completed the Patient Health Questionnaire-9 depression scale. Age, sex, educational level, race, marital status, self-rated health, alcohol status, smoking status, body mass index (BMI), poverty income ratio, physical function, comorbidities, and prescription use were considered potential confounders. The missing data were handled by multiple imputations of chained equations. Logistic regression was used to assess the relationship between low cholesterol and depression.
resultsAfter controlling for potential confounding factors in the multivariate logistic regression, no association was observed between depression and low total cholesterol (OR=1.0, 95% CI: 0.9-1.2), low LDL cholesterol (OR=1.0, 95% CI: 0.8-1.4), or low HDL cholesterol (OR=0.9, 95% CI: 0.8-1.1). The results stratified by sex also showed no association between low total cholesterol, low LDL cholesterol, low HDL cholesterol and depression in either men or women.
conclusionThis population-based study did not support the assumption that low cholesterol was related to a higher risk of depression. This information may contribute to the debate on how to manage people with low cholesterol in clinical practice.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.