Study finds link between depression and risk of heart disease in young adults

Those who self-reported several days of feeling down had a stronger link to cardiovascular disease and poor heart health.

Young adults who feel down or depressed are more likely to develop cardiovascular disease (CVD) and have poor heart health, according to a new study.

The study also found that young adults who self-reported feeling depressed or having poor mental health days had higher rates of heart attacks, strokes and risk factors for heart disease compared with their peers without mental health issues.

The study was led by Johns Hopkins Medicine researchers who analysed data from more than a half million people between the ages of 18 and 49, it said.

The findings add to a growing body of evidence connecting CVD with depression among young and middle-aged adults, and suggest the relationship between the two could begin in early adulthood, the study published in the Journal of the American Heart Association said.

"When you're stressed, anxious or depressed, you may feel overwhelmed, and your heart rate and blood pressure rises.

"It's also common that feeling down could lead to making poor lifestyle choices like smoking, drinking alcohol, sleeping less and not being physically active - all adverse conditions that negativity impact your heart," said Garima Sharma, associate professor at Johns Hopkins Medicine and senior author of the study.

Sharma and her colleagues looked at data from 593,616 (over 5.9 lakh) adults who participated in the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System, a self-reported, nationally representative survey conducted between 2017 and 2020, the study said.