Journal entry 2

What is your topic? Or what are your key words thus far?

My topic is about the relationship of obesity and depression in adolescent children.

My keywords thus far are relationships, cohort study, longitudinal studies

What is your research question? Have you decided to change it at all? And, if you have, how do I know that the way in which this question is formulated is appropriate to conduct a literature review with a systematic approach?

My research question is: Is there a prevalence of comorbid  obesity and depression in adolescent and what can be done to help if there is a problem?

I did change my question because it was originally talking about depression and suicide with obesity but there is plenty of info given on just depression itself.

This question will work because it is more specific allowing me to stay on topic but there is still plenty of info given on the topic.

And what are the definitions on which it depends?

My question depends on five terms, all of which are linked to the literature. Those terms are:

Prevalence: the proportion of disease found to be affecting a particular population

Comorbid: the simultaneous presence of two chronic diseases or conditions in a patient.

Obesity: A BMI of 30 or greater

Depression: a persistent feelings of sadness and worthlessness and a lack of desire to engage in formerly pleasurable activities.

Adolescent: the period following the onset of puberty during which a young person develops from a child into an adult.

What is your hierarchy of evidence? And how do I know you going about finding the most appropriate evidence/method for your research question?

Since my question is on finding out if there is a relationship between obesity and depression my articles are most likely going to be cohort studies. There will also be multiple studies showing if obesity leads to depression or if depression leads to obesity so i expect to find articles on both and also for them to be longitudinal studies showing how the second symptom grows over time. After finding out if there is a relationship i will need to find articles on what could cause the main symptom and how the symptom could be fixed or improved.

Cohort

Case control

Longitudinal

Expert opinion

Studies on how effective treatments are.

How do I know that the remit of the method itself is selecting the research, rather than just you on a whim? + 1 thing you found interesting + how you imagine using the source

Article 1 (cohort)

Goldfield, G. S., Moore, C., Henderson, K., Buchholz, A., Obeid, N., & Flament, M. F. (2010). Body Dissatisfaction, Dietary Restraint, Depression, and Weight Status in Adolescents. Journal of School Health, 80(4), 186-192. doi:10.1111/j.1746-1561.2009.00485.x

This article is directly relevant to my topic (Cohort study) and this is proven in the introduction on how they talk about the relationship of obesity with symptoms. It then goes on talking about how depression is a key symptom . The study will then interview children who are obese, overweight and normal body weight. The results show how obese adolescents have more symptoms of depression than others and also discuss more discomfort of their body. This info will most likely be used on proving that obesity can lead to depression in my results section and also shows that if there isn't a comorbidity as adolescence it shows that it leads to it. I found it interesting that in this study emotional eating wasn’t different between obese, overweight and normal weight adolescents meaning that obesity is more the cause of depression.

Article 2 (Lit review)

Mannan, M., Mamun, A., Doi, S., & Clavarino, A. (2016). Prospective Associations between Depression and Obesity for Adolescent Males and Females- A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Longitudinal Studies. Plos One, 11(6). doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0157240

This article is directly relevant to my topic (lit review) and this is proven from the introduction giving many different reasons of possible causes. This could be used all throughout my papers from the introduction; showing how it's relevant in our society, results; how depressions may cause obesity or obesity may cause depressions, and I can compare the conclusion from this paper compared to the information I find. I found it interesting that they found similar facts but also that there is a possible of genetic factors. Inflammations, impaired glycaemic control, dysregulation of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenocortical axis can cause both obesity and depression.

Article 3 (prospective cohort study)

Goodman, E., & Whitaker, R. C. (2002). A Prospective Study of the Role of Depression in the Development and Persistence of Adolescent Obesity. Pediatrics, 110(3), 497-504. doi:10.1542/peds.110.3.497

This article is directly relevant to my topic (cohort) and this is proven from the results section and the main topic. This article picks adolescence and has them do a survey testing for depression and comes back after a certain period of time and retest for depression and BMI scores. This article is based on if depression will lead adolescence into obesity and this info could be used in the results section when trying to determine which symptom cause the other or if both can lead to the co-morbidity. I found it interesting that females are at most risk for these problems and that psychosocial events are the cause for both depression and obesity.  

Article 4 (Case Control study)

Gallai, B., Esposito, M., Roccella, M., Marotta, R., Lavano, F., Lavano, S. M., . . . Carotenuto, M. (2014). Anxiety and depression levels in prepubertal obese children: a case-control study. Neuropsychiatric Disease and Treatment, 1897. doi:10.2147/ndt.s69795

This article directly works with my topic by comparing both obese children and healthy children. They gave both groups surveys to help determine if the children have depressive or anxiety symptoms. The result showed that inside the groups there was no difference between male or female, but when comparing the two groups there showed a significant difference with obese children showing more depressive symptoms. I will use this in the results section as well to just show that there is a relationship and it shows that the CDI score; the test for depressive symptoms, was linear with the BMI of the children. This could probably help with showing that obesity will lead to depression. I did find it interesting that poorer quality of life, social issues and increased behavioral problems have a negative impact on obesity and depression.

Article 5 (lit review)

Mcelroy, S. L., Kotwal, R., Malhotra, S., Nelson, E. B., Keck, P. E., & Nemeroff, C. B. (2004). Are Mood Disorders and Obesity Related? A Review for the Mental Health Professional. The Journal of Clinical Psychiatry, 65(5), 634-651. doi:10.4088/jcp.v65n0507

This article directly works with my topic because it shows data of many articles relating obesity and mental disorders. In the reading there is plenty of data relating depression and obesity in kids. This is great for my intro and also for my result section. My intro I can use facts showing how obesity is known to have mental illnesses that come with it. For my results it shows information on both depression leading to obesity and obesity leading to depression. I did find it interesting that these are both known to be genetic factors and also patients that are depressed or have high stress levels tend to have higher cortisol levels, leading to increase weight gain.

Anything else interesting happen?

I changed my question, making it more clear on what my search is.