background Psychological disorders form a major health burden in the Dutch population. Interestingly, strategies focusing on early intervention are promising to decrease the chronic disease burden. In this respect, adequate risk profiling is crucial to initiate treatment on time and identification and treatment of modifiable risk factors can help to prevent events from occurring.
aim To evaluate the relationship between psychological distress , demographic factors (gender, age, race and marital status) and modifiable lifestyle variables (obesity, psychical inactivity, tobacco use, alcohol use, experienced stress and serious life events in recent past).
methods Cross-sectional data (N = 4731) were collected from a healthy population participating in the niped PreventionCompass program, a large approach for medical and psychological prevention and lifestyle intervention based on integrated risk profiling. The data were analyzed using logistic regression models.
results The multivariate model produced significant corrected associations between psychological distress measured by the Kessler 10 questionnaire and the variables gender, race, marital status, experienced stress, serious life events in recent past, tobacco use and unhealthy aspects of nutrition. For obesity and physical activity no associations could be found.
conclusion Incorporating significant demographic and lifestyle determinants in a risk assessment for psychological disorders would be of interest to refine risk profiling algorithms. These results further indicate that an integrated approach could be useful to improve mental health and lifestyle simultaneously.