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A network approach to lifestyle behaviors and health outcomes in people with mental illness: the MULTI+ study III

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 April 2025

Natascha M. den Bleijker*
Affiliation:
Scientific Research Department, GGz Centraal, Amersfoort, the Netherlands Department of Psychiatry, UMC Utrecht Brain Center, University Medical Center Utrecht, Utrecht University, Utrecht, the Netherlands
Myrthe M. E. van Schothorst
Affiliation:
Scientific Research Department, GGz Centraal, Amersfoort, the Netherlands School for Mental Health and Neuroscience, Faculty of Health, Medicine and Life Sciences, Maastricht University, Maastricht, the Netherlands
Tessa F. Blanken
Affiliation:
Department of Psychological Methods, University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, the Netherlands Department of Clinical Psychology, University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, the Netherlands
Ingrid J. M. Hendriksen
Affiliation:
LivIng Active, Santpoort-Zuid, the Netherlands
Wiepke Cahn
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry, UMC Utrecht Brain Center, University Medical Center Utrecht, Utrecht University, Utrecht, the Netherlands Altrecht, General Menthal Health Care, Utrecht, the Netherlands
Jeroen Deenik
Affiliation:
Scientific Research Department, GGz Centraal, Amersfoort, the Netherlands Department of Psychiatry, UMC Utrecht Brain Center, University Medical Center Utrecht, Utrecht University, Utrecht, the Netherlands School for Mental Health and Neuroscience, Faculty of Health, Medicine and Life Sciences, Maastricht University, Maastricht, the Netherlands
*
Corresponding author: Natascha M. den Bleijker; Email: n.denbleijker@ggzcentraal.nl

Abstract

Background

Unhealthy lifestyle behaviors are prevalent among people with mental illness (MI), affecting their physical and mental health. Most research has focused on the isolated effects of lifestyle behaviors, leaving the interconnectedness between these behaviors and health outcomes unexplored. This study aimed to examine these relationships and identify the most strongly connected lifestyle behavior or health outcome within a network.

Methods

We conducted a cross-sectional study with 423 inpatients with MI, receiving care as usual. Lifestyle behaviors, physical and mental health outcomes were assessed through questionnaires and routine data. A Gaussian Graphical Model was estimated, and strength centrality was calculated to identify the most influential nodes.

Results

Mean age was 55.5 years, 42% were female, and 41% were diagnosed with schizophrenia. Psychological and physical quality of life (QoL), nighttime sleep problems, and overall sleep quality were the most strongly connected nodes. Sleep was strongly associated with physical QoL. Furthermore, there were negative associations between healthy food intake and cholesterol ratio, and positive associations between daily doses of antipsychotics and length of hospital stay. Node strength was stable (CS(cor = 0.7) = 0.75). No clear pattern emerged among other lifestyle behaviors and health outcomes.

Conclusions

This study offers insights into the interrelatedness of lifestyle behaviors and health outcomes. Addressing sleep problems could enhance QoL and potentially influence other health outcomes. Psychological and physical QoL were also strongly associated, emphasizing the importance of perceived well-being in health outcomes. Future research could explore causal pathways to identify treatment targets to improve care.

Information

Type
Research Article
Creative Commons
Creative Common License - CCCreative Common License - BYCreative Common License - NCCreative Common License - SA
This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike licence (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0), which permits non-commercial re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the same Creative Commons licence is used to distribute the re-used or adapted article and the original article is properly cited. The written permission of Cambridge University Press must be obtained prior to any commercial use.
Copyright
© The Author(s), 2025. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of European Psychiatric Association
Figure 0

Table 1. Description of outcome measures and their psychometric properties

Figure 1

Table 2. Patient characteristics

Figure 2

Figure 1. Graphical representation of the estimated network model, including lifestyle behaviors, physical health, and mental health, differentiated by colors. Blue edges indicate a positive conditional association, and red edges indicate a negative conditional association. The thickness and saturation of edges are proportional to the strength of the conditional association. Higher scores on overall sleep quality mean more overall sleep problems.

Figure 3

Figure 2. Centrality plot illustrating the strength of the nodes in the network depicted in Figure 1. Nodes are ordered from the node with the highest strength to the node with the lowest strength. Node strength quantifies how strongly a node is directly connected to other nodes (summing the absolute value of the edges to each node). All values are standardized, with higher values indicating more centrality.

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