Correlation of cardiometabolic index (CMI) with postmenopausal depression: a cross-sectional study based on NHANES 2005–2018

The risk of depression increases significantly in women after menopause. Therefore, it is particularly important to identify and intervene early in postmenopausal depression. The aim of this study was to assess the relationship between cardiometabolic index (CMI) and depression in postmenopausal women. A cross-sectional study was conducted by collecting information from the 2005–2018 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES). Multiple linear regression models were used to investigate the association between CMI and depression among postmenopausal women. Threshold effects analyses and fitted smoothed curves were used to describe nonlinear associations. In addition, interaction tests and subgroup analyses were performed.A total of 956 individuals participated in this study and their mean age was 64.67 ± 9.17 years. CMI was positively associated with postmenopausal depression in a fully corrected model [OR = 1.35 (1.05, 1.77), p = .0202]. Our study found that postmenopausal women with higher CMI were at greater risk of depression. Subgroup analyses found a stronger positive correlation between CMI and depression in postmenopausal women who had experienced a stroke and a higher number of pregnancies (P for interaction < 0.05).We found a non-linear association between postmenopausal depression and CMI (P for log likelihood ratio < 0.05). In addition, our study found that CMI was a better predictor of postmenopausal depression than WWI.Increased CMI is associated with an increased risk of postmenopausal depression.CMI can be used as a new anthropometric measure for predicting postmenopausal depression with greater predictive power than the WWI.