Association of skin autofluorescence with depressive symptoms and the severity of depressive symptoms: The prospective REACTION study.

Millions of people are afflicted by depression, a highly prevalent mental illness with increased morbidity and mortality. Advanced glycation end-products (AGEs) are potential risk factors for depression. We aimed to investigate the correlation of AGEs with depressive symptoms and the severity of depressive symptoms. This study was nested in the prospective REACTION (Risk Evaluation of cAncers in Chinese diabeTic Individuals) study and included 4420 eligible participants. skin autofluorescence (SAF) was used to measure skin AGEs. Depressive symptoms were evaluated by the Self-Rating Depression Scale (SDS). Multiple logistic regression analysis was used to assess the association of AGEs with depressive symptoms and the severity of depressive symptoms. Logistic analysis showed a significantly positive relationship between quartiles of SAF-AGEs and the risk of depressive symptoms with the OR [95% confidence interval (CI), p value] of 1.24 (95% CI: 1.03–1.50, p = 0.022), 1.39 (95% CI: 1.15–1.68, p = 0.001) and 1.57 (95% CI: 1.28–1.91, p < 0.001) for multivariable-adjusted model respectively. And SAF-AGEs were associated with the severity of depressive symptoms with the multivariable-adjusted OR (95% CI, p value) of 1.06 (95% CI:0.79–1.43, p = 0.681), 1.47 (95% CI: 1.08–1.99, p = 0.014), and 1.54 (95% CI: 1.12–2.11, p = 0.008) respectively. Stratified analyses showed that SAF-AGEs were significantly associated with the severity of depressive symptoms only in females, overweight people, individuals with hypertension, and those without diabetes and insomnia. The present study showed that a higher SAF-AGEs level was associated with depressive symptoms and the severity of depressive symptoms. • A higher SAF-AGEs level was associated with depressive symptoms in Chinese population. • SAF-AGEs was related to the severity of depressive symptoms. • There is a threshold value of SAF-AGEs, below which a lower prevalence of moderate to severe depressive symptoms was seen. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]