An examination of the path coefficients within each of the latter models revealed the same strong associations between obesity, CD4+cell count, and protease inhibitor use shown in Model 1. But, in these models, a stronger association was found with depression symptoms and obesity, when depression symptoms were incorporated into a larger construct that we arbitrarily label as “mood dysregulation.” Across Models 2 and 3, the significant associations of current depression symptoms with this construct were indicated by standardized regression coefficients, β, of .48 (p<.05). The construct was also strongly and significantly (βs ≥ .6, ps<.05) associated with the number of childhood conduct problems and stimulant dependence symptoms in both models.
