Associations between affective factors and high-frequency heart rate variability in primary care patients with depression

•Anxiety symptoms are associated with lower HF HRV in people with depression.•This relationship remained after adjusting for CVD risk factors and medication use.•Hostility/anger is not related to HF HRV in people with depression.•Trait positive affect is not related to HF HRV in people with depression.•Co-occurring anxiety may indicate a depression subgroup at elevated CVD risk.