Background: This research focused on the association between physical activity and fruit-vegetable intake and the risk of depression in middle aged and older Taiwanese adults. Methods: Data were obtained from the 1999 to 2015 datasets of the Taiwan Longitudinal Survey on Aging (TLSA), and 4,400 participants were included in 1999 (aged ≥ 53years). Descriptive statistics provided all of the basic characteristic variables. A chi-square test analyzed the association between sex, age, years of education, marriage, hypertension, drinking, smoking, and the incidence of depression. Logistic regression analysis was used to determine significant associations between physical activity and fruit-vegetable intake, and the presence or absence of depression after 16 years. Results: Combined high physical activity and fruit-vegetable intake reduced the risk of depression by 80% (OR = 0.20, 95% CI = 0.10–0.45, p = 0.001) compared to low physical activity and fruit-vegetable intake; high physical activity and moderate or low fruit-vegetable intake caused a 70% reduction (OR = 0.30, 95% CI = 0.15–0.63, p = 0.005). High fruit-vegetable intake and low physical activity caused a 65% reduction (OR = 0.35, 95% CI = 0.15–0.63, p = 0.005), compared to low physical activity and low fruit-vegetable intake. High physical activity alone caused a 40% reduction, which is the same as by high fruit-vegetable intake alone. Conclusions: Fruit-vegetable intake combined with physical activity was negatively correlated with the risk of depression. More fruit-vegetable intake and physical activity might reduce this risk. The results highlight the importance of physical activity and fruit-vegetable consumption for middle-aged and older adults to prevent depression.

Existing evidence indicates that both iron deficiency anemia and sickle cell anemia have been previously associated with hearing loss. However, human data investigating the association between anemia and auditory threshold shifts at different frequencies in the adolescent, adult and elderly population are extremely limited to date. Therefore, this cross-sectional study used the dataset from the US National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey from 2005 to 2012 to explore differences in low- or high-frequency hearing thresholds and hearing loss prevalence between participants with and without anemia. A total of 918 patients with anemia and 8213 without anemia were included. Results indicated that low- and high-frequency pure tone average were significantly higher in patients with anemia than that in those without anemia in the elderly, but not in adult or adolescent population. In addition, the prevalence of low-frequency hearing loss but not high-frequency hearing loss was also higher in patients with anemia than in those without anemia in the elderly population. After adjusting various confounders, multiple regression models still indicated that patients with anemia tended to have larger threshold shift. In conclusion, anemia was associated with auditory threshold shifts in the elderly population, especially those vulnerable to low-frequency hearing loss.