Objective  To understand the relationship between obesity and depression in the elderly in China, and to explore whether there are differences between the genders.

  Methods  The data were collected from the 2015 China Health and Retirement National Investigation (China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study, CHARLS). The respondents were grouped according to depressive status. The difference of depressive status between the elderly male and female groups was examined by Chi-square test. The relationship between depression, obesity and the other sociological factors was analyzed by binary logistic regression.

  Results  There were 4 019 valid cases, including 2 109 males (52.48%) and 1 910 females (47.52%). All the respondents were aged 60 years and over. There were 474 cases of central obesity (11.79%) and 2 418 cases of abdominal obesity (60.16%). There were significant differences in central obesity and abdominal obesity between the elderly male and female groups (P < 0.001). 1 304 cases suffered from depression, accounting for 32.45%, of which 539 cases were male (41.33%) and 765 cases were female (58.67%). Different groups of gender, central obesity and abdominal obesity had significant differences in depressive status (P < 0.001). The results of univariate analysis indicated that the characteristics of female, divorced/widowed/unmarried, in rural areas, having chronic diseases and functional loss were the risk factors for depression. The results of multivariate logistic regression analysis indicated that, in terms of the total sample, after adjustment for the confounding factors, both central obesity and abdominal obesity groups were less likely to suffer from depression. After stratified by gender, both central obesity and abdominal obesity were negatively correlated with depression.

  Conclusion  The elderly with central obesity or abdominal obesity are less likely to suffer from depression, regardless of gender.