Accelerometer-derived sedentary time and physical activity and the incidence of depressive symptoms – The Maastricht Study

Abstract

Background This study examined the associations between accelerometer-derived sedentary time (ST), lower intensity physical activity (LPA), higher intensity physical activity (HPA) and the incidence of depressive symptoms over 4 years of follow-up. Methods We included 2082 participants from The Maastricht Study (mean ± s.d. age 60.1 ± 8.0 years; 51.2% men) without depressive symptoms at baseline. ST, LPA and HPA were measured with the ActivPAL3 activity monitor. Depressive symptoms were measured annually over 4 years of follow-up with the 9-item Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9). Cox regression analysis was performed to examine the associations between ST, LPA, HPA and incident depressive symptoms (PHQ-9 ⩾ 10). Analyses were adjusted for total waking time per day, age, sex, education level, type 2 diabetes mellitus, body mass index, total energy intake, smoking status and alcohol use. Results During 7812.81 person-years of follow-up, 203 (9.8%) participants developed incident depressive symptoms. No significant associations [Hazard Ratio (95% confidence interval)] were found between sex-specific tertiles of ST (lowest v. highest tertile) [1.13 (0.76–1.66], or HPA (highest v. lowest tertile) [1.14 (0.78–1.69)] and incident depressive symptoms. LPA (highest v. lowest tertile) was statistically significantly associated with incident depressive symptoms in women [1.98 (1.19–3.29)], but not in men (p-interaction <0.01). Conclusions We did not observe an association between ST or HPA and incident depressive symptoms. Lower levels of daily LPA were associated with an increased risk of incident depressive symptoms in women. Future research is needed to investigate accelerometer-derived measured physical activity and ST with incident depressive symptoms, preferably stratified by sex.

Relationship Between Accelerometer-Based Physical Activity, Sedentary Behavior, and Mental Health in Young Finnish Men

“…The differences in the findings of the present study compared with those indicating PA to be associated with better mental well-being and less mental health problems may be explained by methods used in observing PA and mental health. Devicebased measures on PA are less frequently used in mental health research (9,17,20) and findings from previous studies using device-based data have been contradictory. The meta-analysis by Gianfredi et al (10) showed a potential protective effect of PA on prevalent and incident of depression, similar to the findings of the study by Choi et al (11).…”

“…Evidence on the role of accelerometer-based PA in mental health outcomes exist also in studies using samples of children and adolescents (25). However, Konopka et al (20) found no association between accelerometer-based SB or PA with depression symptoms in men. Similarly, a cohort study by Bell et al (34) found no evidence of an association between accelerometer-based PA, mental well-being and symptoms of mental disorders, but the sample consisted of adolescents and the findings are therefore not comparable with the findings of the present study.…”

“…The present study found no evidence on relationship between SB and mental well-being and only a weak relationship between SB and symptoms of mental health problems, although SB has been suggested to be associated with a higher risk of mental health problems in adult populations. However, these studies have most commonly used self-reported PA data (4,(20)(21)(22). Also contradictory findings have been reported, for example, by the review of Teychenne et al (21) and by the study of Konopka et al (20) who examined the association between accelerometer-derived SB and depressive symptoms over 4 years follow-up and found no association between SB and depressive symptoms.…”

“…Previous studies suggest that the positive association between PA and mental well-being could be hampered by daily sedentary time (17)(18)(19). Despite of partly inconsistent results on the relationship between SB and mental health (20,21), the findings of previous studies tend to indicate that higher level of SB is associated with a higher level of mental health problems both in adults (22)(23)(24) and adolescents (25,26) and decreased mental well-being in adult populations. Similar findings have been found both in studies using self-reported (4,18) and devicebased SB data (27).…”

“…Device-based measures on PA and SB are less frequently used in mental health research (17,20). Most of the evidence on the association between PA/SB and mental health relies on selfreported measurements of PA (9).…”