Study: Bidirectional Link Between Depression and Physical Activity in Adults

A new research published in the journal Mental Health and Physical Activity from the University of Toronto reported a bidirectional relationship between depressive symptoms and physical activity across the life course. According to the research the more adults report symptoms of depression symptoms the less they are likely to report physical activity in the same period and vice versa. The research was conducted to understand how physical activity and depression symptoms are interrelated and can influence each other during adulthood.

Two main questions regarding this research were:

• Do depressive symptoms have a greater substantive effect on physical activity and vice versa?
• Are the effects stable over time, or are there critical periods during adulthood?

3,499 U.S. adults were followed from 1986 to 2011, to collect data on how lifestyle and mental health develop gradually over time. This is also known as the 25-years of the Americans’ Changing Lives (ACL) Study. A new causal inference technique or dynamic panel models were used so that the researchers can get a clearer view of the interactions between depression and physical activity.

Read more; Depression: Symptoms, Causes, Types and Treatment

The researchers observed insufficient physical activity and increasing depression in the general American adult population. According to the research, the answer to the 1st question is depression symptom has a significant effect on physical effects both over time and cross-sectionally. For the second question, they suggested that the effects are stable during adulthood. Though many studies have proved that physical activities like walking, dancing, and gardening regularly can improve mental and physical health and have similar effects like anti-depressant medication.

This concept gets stronger after this research as the result showed that weekly depression symptoms are related to physical activities and responsible for one’s improved mood. In brief, promoting physical activity is one of the best ways to improve the health of individuals in community settings.

The limitation of this research is that the measure of physical activity was subjective. The participants self-reported the measures in terms of the types of activities they performed. As a result, it cannot provide insight into the relationship between the intensity of physical activity and the total energy spent by the participants in the process. A doctoral candidate in the University of Toronto’s Department of Sociology, author Soli Dubash says, “It was surprising to find that present depression symptoms can negatively impact your physical activity levels two to five years later, while being inactive today is not related to your future depression symptoms,”