Association Between Physical Activity and Risk of Depression: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis

Publication: JAMA Psychiatry

Soren Brage

13 April 2022


Depression is a disorder characterised by persistent sadness and a lack of interest or pleasure in previously enjoyable activities. It is the leading cause of mental health-related disease burden, affecting approximately 1 in 20 adults worldwide. Reviews of the scientific evidence have shown that depression may be prevented by physical activity, but the benefits at different levels of activity are unclear.

The aim of this study was to combine results from previously published studies to estimate the association between different levels of physical activity and depression. We searched medical databases for studies including at least 3000 adults published up until 12th November 2020. The studies had to report the risk of developing depression for at least three different levels of physical activity.

We included studies irrespective of how they measured physical activity. We standardised these measures to a common format so that the published results could be analysed together and make sense on the same physical activity scale. We estimated what proportion of depression cases would have been avoided if all adults in the studies met the current physical activity recommendations. We included 15 studies with 191,130 participants and found that even small doses of physical activity appeared to substantially lower risks of depression. Adults meeting physical activity recommendations (equivalent to 2.5 hrs/week of brisk walking) had 25% lower risk of depression compared with adults reporting no physical activity.

Our findings suggested that most benefits occurred when moving from no activity to at least some, and that only minor additional benefits were achieved by further increasing activity levels. Approximately 1 in 9 cases of depression might have been prevented if everybody in the population was active at the level of current health recommendations.

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