Being overweight or obese by BMI doesn’t reliably predict depression or anxiety in middle-aged Taiwanese men, and only slightly in women — so weight alone isn’t a good sign of mental health risk.
Scientific Claim
Body mass index (BMI) is not significantly associated with depressive or anxiety symptoms in adult men aged 30–70 in Taiwan after adjusting for confounders, but shows a weak association in women, indicating that overall body weight may not be a reliable marker of psychiatric risk in this population.
Original Statement
“After adjusting for variables, all of the obesity-related indices were significantly associated with psychiatric morbidity, except for BMI in the male subjects... BMI was only significantly lower in the female group (Table 2). In multivariate analysis, BMI was not significantly associated with psychiatric morbidity in either sex (p=0.709 for men, p=0.609 for women).”
Evidence Quality Assessment
Claim Status
appropriately stated
Study Design Support
Design supports claim
Appropriate Language Strength
association
Can only show association/correlation
Assessment Explanation
The study correctly reports non-significant associations using adjusted odds ratios and p-values, avoiding causal language. The conclusion aligns with the observational design.
Evidence from Studies
Supporting (1)
Abdominal Obesity Indices as Predictors of Psychiatric Morbidity in a Large-Scale Taiwanese Cohort
The study found that in Taiwanese men, being overweight by BMI doesn’t reliably predict depression or anxiety, but in women, it’s a little linked — so BMI isn’t a good sign for mental health risk in men, which matches the claim.