Physical Activity and Depressive Symptoms: The Nhanes I Epidemiologic Follow-Up Study

Abstract

The relation between self-reported physical activity and depressive symptoms was analyzed for 1,900 healthy subjects aged 25-77 years in the Epidemiologic Follow-up Study (1982-1984) to the first National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES I). Depressive symptomatology as measured by the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale (CES-D) was examined by sex and race in relation to recreational physical activity and physical activity apart from recreation, controlling for age, education, income, employment status, and chronic conditions. Little or no recreational physical activity and little or no physical activity apart from recreation were cross-sectionally associated with depressive symptoms in whites and in blacks. After exclusion of those with depressive symptoms at baseline, recreational physical activity was an independent predictor of depressive symptoms an average of eight years later in white women. The adjusted odds of depressive symptoms at follow-up were approximately 2 for women with little or no recreational physical activity compared with women with much or moderate recreational physical activity (95% confidence interval 1.1-3.2). These findings are the first indication from a prospective study of a large community sample that physical inactivity may be a risk factor for depressive symptoms.

Participants Who Left a Multiple-Wave Cohort Study Had Similar Baseline Characteristics to Participants Who Returned

“…Four major classes of attrition have been identified in the literature: an eligible participant declines to enter the study at its initialization, a participant declines to complete a questionnaire at a subsequent follow-up, there is nonresponse due to incapacity or death, or researchers fail to relocate a participant for a follow-up wave. Previously, large epidemiologic studies found different predictors for each of these reasons for attrition 17,18 . The design of the Mater-University of Queensland Study of Pregnancy did not allow us to easily distinguish whether nonresponse at a follow-up wave was caused by participant refusal, researchers not being able to relocate a participant, or because of participant incapacity.…”

Physical activity in the prevention and treatment of anxiety and depression

“…Following samples of non-depressed subjects over time, the general finding is that physically active people have a reduced tendency to develop depression (8,9). Although these findings are more compelling, they cannot rule out the potential for self-selection.…”

Risk factors for hypertension in a national cohort study.

“…The reliability of these answers has not been tested, and the indirect validity of these data in the NHANES I study is limited. 41 The usefulness and limitations of simplified physical activity questionnaires have been discussed elsewhere. 42 -43 Finally, the relatively small numbers of black men and women reduced the power of the study to detect associations in these groups.…”