Association between muscle strength and depressive symptoms among Chinese female college freshmen: a cross-sectional study

Abstract

Background: Increased physical activity level is related to lower risk of depressive symptoms, and there is an inverse association between muscle strength and risk of depressive symptoms among the elderly. Although there is evidence of an inverse association between muscle strength and depressive symptoms, the relationship between these variables in a younger population is still unknown. This study aimed to examine the association between handgrip strength, a representative indicator of skeletal muscle strength, and the risk of depressive symptoms among Chinese female college freshmen. Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted among 867 participants aged between 16 and 23 years. Handgrip strength was measured with a handheld digital Smedley dynamometer, and handgrip strength relative to body weight (kg/kg) was calculated and was classified into tertiles as follows: low (0.32-0.50), medium (0.51-0.58), and high (0.59-0.94). Depressive symptoms were evaluated using the 20-item Zung self-rating depression scale (SDS), and three cutoff points were used to indicate different depression levels. Results: We found that 10.7% of participants were classified as having severe depressive symptoms using an SDS score of 50 as the cutoff point. After adjusting for potential confounders, the adjusted odds ratios and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) for moderate-to-severe depressive symptoms across tertiles of the relative handgrip strength were 1.00 (reference) for tertile 1, 0.614 (0.353, 1.069) for tertile 2, and 0.537 (0.292, 0.988) for tertile 3 (P for trend = 0.041). The significant associations remained when other cutoff points (SDS scores: 48 or 45) were used. Interactions between handgrip strength and potential confounders for depressive symptoms in the final models were not significant. Conclusions: Our findings indicate that handgrip strength is inversely and independently related to the risk of depressive symptoms among Chinese female college freshmen. The present findings can help develop an effective intervention strategy against depression. Further intervention studies are needed to explore the mechanisms underlying the effects of handgrip strength on depressive symptoms.

The association between prior physical fitness and depression in young adults during the COVID-19 pandemic—a cross-sectional, retrospective study

“…Furthermore, individuals in the highest explosive fitness level had less than half the associated risk of depression than individuals in the lowest levels. This is a particularly interesting finding as it appears to suggest that different types of fitness than those reported elsewhere (Ren et al, 2020) may have an effect of protection from depressive symptoms. Future prospective cohort or intervention studies are required to better elucidate the relationships between explosive fitness and the risk of depressive symptoms.…”

“…Associations between fitness measures and depressive symptoms in young adults may be bidirectional. Studies have indicated that previous depression could be a factor in the cessation of exercise, and the development of a sedentary lifestyle since those with depression may have lower self-worth, and confidence, increased self-criticism, and unwarranted guilt (Faulkner, Carson & Stone, 2014;Ren et al, 2020). Future prospective cohort or intervention studies are required to better elucidate the relationships between fitness, particularly anaerobic and explosive fitness, and the risk of depressive symptoms.…”

The mediating role of self-esteem in the association between physical fitness and risk of depression in adolescents: DADOS Study

“…Despite the fact that this is the first study focused on the role of self-esteem in the association between muscular strength and risk of depression in adolescents, our results partially concur with previous data analysing muscular strength and depression showing null associations in children (Esmaeilzadeh, 2014;Rodriguez-Ayllon et al, 2018). However, significant inverse associations were found between muscular strength and depression in adults (Ashdown-Franks et al, 2019;Ren et al, 2020;Wu et al, 2017). We speculate that this lack of association could be explained by the fact that our participants did not achieve the highest maturity stage (i.e.…”

The association between duration of muscle exercise and psychological symptoms is higher in boys than in girls: A cross-sectional study based on Chinese college students during COVID-19

“…However, limited study focus on young people especially on college students. To our best knowledge, we find one study indicated that handgrip strength is inversely and independently related to the risk of depressive symptoms among Chinese girls college, while the Chinese boys college were not involved ( 17 ).…”