The risk of death by cardiovascular diseases due to depression may be just as great as that posed by high cholesterol levels and obesity, a study has found.
Worldwide 350 million people are affected by depression, according to the World Health Organisation.
“Our study shows that the risk of a fatal cardiovascular disease due to depression is almost as great as that due to elevated cholesterol levels or obesity,” said Karl-Heinz Ladwig, professor at Technical University of Munich (TUM) in Germany.
Depression accounted for nearly 15% of the cardiovascular deaths.
“That is comparable to the other risk factors, such as hypercholesterolemia, obesity and smoking,” Ladwig said, noting that these factors cause 8.4 to 21.4% of the cardiovascular deaths.
In the study, the team included 3,428 male patients between the ages of 45 and 74 years and observed their development over a period of 10 years.
The researchers analysed the relationship between depression and other risk factors like tobacco smoke, high cholesterol levels, obesity or hypertension and how big a role does each factor play?
The results show that only high blood pressure and smoking are associated with a greater risk.
The study was recently published in the journal Atherosclerosis.
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