Associations of depressive symptoms with health behaviors, stress, and self-assessed health status in Hawai'i: a population study.
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BACKGROUND: The aim of this cross-sectional study was to examine how depressive symptoms are associated with health behaviors, stress, and self-assessed health status in the population of Hawai'i. METHODS: Randomized phone calls were made using computer assistant telephone interviews. A regression analysis with depressive symptoms as the outcome and sociodemographic variables, health behaviors, stress, and health status as predictors was conducted in 1483 adults. RESULTS: Depressive symptoms were associated with stress ( = .32), alcohol consumption ( = .19), health status ( = -.10), fast food consumption ( = .06), avoidance of fat ( = -.06), and fruit and vegetable consumption ( = .06). Moreover, depressive symptoms were linked to being female ( = .06), being single ( = -.06), and being Caucasian compared with being Native Hawaiian ( = -.06) or Japanese ( = -.08). The overall explained variance was 22%. CONCLUSION: Depressive symptoms correlate with health risk behaviors and might be considered as a risk for chronic diseases.