Physical Fitness for Depression in Adolescents and Adults: A Meta-Analysis
,
Abstract
Background: Depression has been recognized as one of the most significant factors affecting mental health status. For this reason, several efforts to prevent and reduce depression in all ages have been made in various domains to identify the relevant factors as well as the causes of depression. The objective of this meta-analysis was to examine the effect size between physical fitness and depression in adolescents and adults.
Methods: A systematic search for meta-analysis (2009-2020) was performed using PubMed, Scopus, Web of Science, and RISS, with key terms such as depression, depressive illness, and physical fitness or fitness. Overall, 19 out of 448 articles were included in the meta-analysis with strict inclusion criteria.
Results: The effect size is a medium between physical fitness and depression in adolescents and adults. Two fitness factors, namely cardiovascular endurance and muscle strength, are more relevant for alleviating depression in adolescents and adults, whereas agility was not related to depression. In particular, the cardiovascular fitness factor has an impact on almost all ages; however, muscular strength has less impact on depression in young adolescents, but has a great impact on older adults’ depression.
Conclusion: The effect size in this study is a medium between physical fitness and depression in adolescents and adults. Thus, more longitudinal and clinical studies with larger sample sizes are needed to clarify the relationship between physical fitness and depression.
1. Jin Y, Kim D, Hong H, et al (2019). A long-term exercise intervention reduces depression symptoms in older Korean women. J Sports Sci Med, 18: 399-404.
2. Lee I, Jin Y, Cho J, et al (2014). Association between depression and physical fitness, body fatness and serum vitamin D in el-derly population. Korean J Obes, 23(2): 125-130.
3. Lee J, Ryan E (2020). The relationship be-tween muscular strength and depression in older adults with chronic disease comorbidity. Int J Environ Res Public Health, 17(18): 6830.
4. Rethorst C, Leonard D, Barlow C, et al (2017). Effects of depression, metabolic syndrome, and cardiorespiratory fitness on mortality: results from the Cooper Center longitudinal study. Psychol Med, 47(14): 2414-2420.
5. Axelsdottir B, Biedilae S, Sagatun A, et al (2020). Exercise for depression in chil-dren and adolescents–a systematic review and meta‐analysis. Child Adolesc Ment Health, 26(4):347-356.
6. Galiano-Castillo N, Ariza-Garcia A, Cantar-ero-Villanueva I, et al (2014). Depressed mood in breast cancer survivors: associa-tions with physical activity, cancer-related fatigue, quality of life, and fitness level. Eur J Oncol Nurs, 18(2): 206-210.
7. Farren G, Zhang T, Gu X, et al (2018). Sed-entary behavior and physical activity pre-dicting depressive symptoms in adoles-cents beyond attributes of health-related physical fitness. J Sport Health Sci, 7(4): 489-496.
8. Johnson W, Mortensen E, Kyvik K (2020). Gene–environment interplay between physical exercise and fitness and depres-sion symptomatology. Behav Genet, 50(5): 346-362.
9. Marques A, Gomez-Baya D, Peralta M, et al (2020). The effect of muscular strength on depression symptoms in adults: a sys-tematic review and meta-analysis. Int J Environ Res Public Health, 17(16): 5674.
10. Perez-Cruzado D, Cuesta-Vargas A, Vera-Garcia E, et al (2018). The relationship between quality of life and physical fitness in people with severe mental illness. Health Qual Life Outcomes, 16(1): 82.
11. Rahman M, Helgadottir B, Hallgren M, et al (2018). Cardiorespiratory fitness and re-sponse to exercise treatment in depres-sion. BJPsych Open, 4(5): 346-351.
12. Rica R, Shimojo G, Gomes M, et al (2020). Effects of a kinect‐based physical training program on body composition, func-tional fitness and depression in institu-tionalized older adults. Geriatr Gerontol Int, 20(3): 195-200.
13. Yeatts P, Martin S, Petrie T (2017). Physical fitness as a moderator of neuroticism and depression in adolescent boys and girls. Pers Individ Differ, 114: 30-35.
14. Dangi A, Aurangabadkar S, Deo M (2018). Effect of a structured yoga program on fatigue, depression, cardiorespiratory fit-ness, and quality of life in a postmeno-pausal breast cancer survivor. Int J Yoga, 11(3): 255-257.
15. Hallgren M, Kandola A, Stubbs B, et al (2020). Associations of exercise frequency and cardiorespiratory fitness with symp-toms of depression and anxiety-a cross-sectional study of 36,595 adults. Ment Heath Phys Act, 19: 100351.
16. Nikolakaros G, Vahlberg T, Sillanmaki L, et al (2020). Recurrent depression in child-hood and adolescence and low child-hood socioeconomic status predict low cardiorespiratory fitness in early adult-hood. J Affect Disord, 266: 782-792.
17. Ruggero C, Petrie T, Sheinbein S, et al (2015). Cardiorespiratory fitness may help in protecting against depression among middle school adolescents. J Adolesc Health, 57(1): 60-65.
18. Stubbs B, Rosenbaum S, Vancampfort D, et al (2016). Exercise improves cardiorespir-atory fitness in people with depression: a meta-analysis of randomized control tri-als. J Affect Disord, 190: 249-253.
19. Tonello L, Oliveira-Silva L, Medeiros A, et al (2019). Prediction of depression scores from aerobic fitness, body fatness, physi-cal activity, and vagal indices in non-exercising, female workers. Front Psychia-try, 10: 192.
20. Yamagata E, Yamada Y, Sugihara Y, et al (2013). Physical fitness and depression symptoms in community-dwelling elderly women. Nihon Koshu Eisei Zasshi, 60(4): 231-240.
21. Ren Z, Cao J, Li Y, et al (2020). Association between muscle strength and depressive symptoms among Chinese female college freshmen: a cross-sectional study. BMC Musculoskelet Disord, 21(1):510.
22. Esmaeilzadeh S (2015). The association be-tween depressive symptoms and physical status including physical activity, aerobic and muscular fitness tests in children. En-viron Health Prev Med, 20(6): 434-440.
23. Fukumori N, Yamamoto Y, Takegami M, et al (2015). Association between hand-grip strength and depressive symptoms: Lo-comotive syndrome and health outcomes in Aizu cohort study (LOHAS). Age Age-ing, 44(4): 592-598.
24. Gu Y, Li X, Zhang Q, et al (2021). Grip strength and depressive symptoms in a large-scale adult population: the TCLSIH cohort study. J Affect Disord, 279: 222-228.
25. Han K, Chang J, Yoon H, et al (2019). Rela-tionships between hand-grip strength, socioeconomic status, and depressive symptoms in community-dwelling older adults. J Affect Disord, 252: 263-270.
26. Jeong B (2020). Correlation of physical fit-ness with psychological well-being, stress, and depression in Korean adults. J Exerc Rehabil, 16(4): 351-355.
27. McDowell C, Gordon B, Herring M (2018). Sex-related differences in the association between grip strength and depression: Results from the Irish Longitudinal Study on Ageing. Exp Gerontol, 104: 147-152.
28. Park S, Cho J, Kim D, et al (2019). Handgrip strength, depression, and all-cause mor-tality in Korean older adults. BMC Geriatr, 19(1): 127.
29. Smith L, Firth J, Grabovac I, et al (2019). The association of grip strength with de-pressive symptoms and cortisol in hair: A cross‐sectional study of older adults. Scand J Med Sci Sports, 29(10): 1604-1609.
30. Alghwiri A, Khalil H, Al-Sharman A, El-Salem K (2018). Depression is a predictor for balance in people with multiple scle-rosis. Mult Scler Relat Disord, 24:28-31.
31. Dutta A, Kumar R, Malhotra S, et al (2013). A low-cost point-of-care testing system for psychomotor symptoms of depres-sion affecting standing balance: a prelim-inary study in India. Depress Res Treat, 2013:640861.
32. Byeon H (2019). Relationship between phys-ical activity level and depression of elderly people living alone. Int J Environ Res Public Health, 16(20): 4051.
33. Hocherman S, Dimant A, Schwartz M (2003). Visuo-motor coordination is normal in patients with major depression. Parkinsonism Relat Disord, 9(6): 361-366.
34. Choi M, Sohng K (2018). The effects of floor-seated exercise program on physical fitness, depression, and sleep in older adults: A cluster randomized controlled trial. Int J Gerontol, 12(2): 116-121.
35. Garber C, Blissmer B, Deschenes M, et al (2011). American College of Sports Med-icine position stand. Quantity and quality of exercise for developing and maintain-ing cardiorespiratory, musculoskeletal, and neuromotor fitness in apparently healthy adults: guidance for prescribing exercise. Med Sci Sports Exerc, 43(7): 1334-1359.
36. Borenstein M, Cooper H, Hedges L, et al (2009). Effect sizes for continuous data. The Handbook of Research Synthesis and Meta-analysis, 2: 221-235.
37. Cohen J (2013). Statistical power analysis for the behavioral sciences. New York: Routledge.
38. Kandola A, Osborn D, Stubbs B, et al (2020). Individual and combined associa-tions between cardiorespiratory fitness and grip strength with common mental disorders: a prospective cohort study in the UK Biobank. BMC Med, 18: 303.
39. Chun M, Choi J, Kang S, et al (2019). The relationship between health related physi-cal fitness, depression, and quality of life of the elderly. Journal of the Korea Convergence Society, 10(12): 387-397.
40. Lee M, Jung S, Bang H, et al (2018). The as-sociation between muscular strength and depression in Korean adults: a cross-sectional analysis of the sixth Korea Na-tional Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (KNHANES VI) 2014. BMC Public Health, 18(1): 1123.
41. Martin L, Neighbors H, Griffin D (2013). The experience of symptoms of depression in men vs. women: Analysis of the national comorbidity survey replication. JAMA Psychiatry, 70(10): 1100-1106.
42. Song MS, Kim SK, Kim NC (2011). A study on the correlation between elderly wom-en's depression and physical fitness. J Ko-rean Biol Nurs Sci, 13(1): 37-43.
43. Kim TH, Han TY, Choi YC (2019). Rela-tionship between Physical Fitness, Obesi-ty and Depression Index in Male and Female Elderly. Korean Journal of Sports Science, 28(6): 1187-1196.
44. Jung HS, Hyun MS (2011). Cardiorespiratory Fitness is Associated with Depression Symptom, Blood BDNF, and Cardiovas-cular Disease Risk Factor in Female Obese Adolescents. Korean Journal of Meas-urement and Evaluation in Physical Education and Sports Science, 13(2): 105-113.
45. Jang SW, Jung KI, Ko JG (2012). The relationship between the physical fitness and the mental health, academic achievement of elementary school students. Korean Journal of Elementary Physical Education, 18(2): 211-221.
46. Staples WH, Kays A, Richman R (2020). Ex-amination of the correlation between physical and psychological measures in community-dwelling older adults. Clin In-terv Aging, 15: 293-300.
47. Sener U, Ucok K, Ulasli AM, et al (2016). Evaluation of health‐related physical fit-ness parameters and association analysis with depression, anxiety, and quality of life in patients with fibromyalgia. Int J Rheum Dis, 19(8): 763-772.
48. You SE, Ko YS (2014). Evaluation on medi-ation model of physical fitness depend-ing on Sasang constitution in relation with obesity and depression. Korean Jour-nal of Measurement and Evaluation in Physical Education and Sports Science, 16: 67-82.
49. Lee SJ, Lim CG (2014). The effect of geriat-ric depression level on senior fitness, bal-ance, and falls efficacy scale in elderly women. Korean Journal of Sports Science, 23(3): 1291-1300.
50. Scopaz KA, Piva SR, Wisniewski S, et al (2009). Relationships of fear, anxiety, and depression with physical function in pa-tients with knee osteoarthritis. Arch Phys Med Rehabil, 90(11): 1866-1873.
51. Zhang M, Kim JC, Li Y, et al (2014). Rela-tion between anxiety, depression, and physical activity and performance in maintenance hemodialysis patients. J Ren Nutr, 24(4): 252-260.
2. Lee I, Jin Y, Cho J, et al (2014). Association between depression and physical fitness, body fatness and serum vitamin D in el-derly population. Korean J Obes, 23(2): 125-130.
3. Lee J, Ryan E (2020). The relationship be-tween muscular strength and depression in older adults with chronic disease comorbidity. Int J Environ Res Public Health, 17(18): 6830.
4. Rethorst C, Leonard D, Barlow C, et al (2017). Effects of depression, metabolic syndrome, and cardiorespiratory fitness on mortality: results from the Cooper Center longitudinal study. Psychol Med, 47(14): 2414-2420.
5. Axelsdottir B, Biedilae S, Sagatun A, et al (2020). Exercise for depression in chil-dren and adolescents–a systematic review and meta‐analysis. Child Adolesc Ment Health, 26(4):347-356.
6. Galiano-Castillo N, Ariza-Garcia A, Cantar-ero-Villanueva I, et al (2014). Depressed mood in breast cancer survivors: associa-tions with physical activity, cancer-related fatigue, quality of life, and fitness level. Eur J Oncol Nurs, 18(2): 206-210.
7. Farren G, Zhang T, Gu X, et al (2018). Sed-entary behavior and physical activity pre-dicting depressive symptoms in adoles-cents beyond attributes of health-related physical fitness. J Sport Health Sci, 7(4): 489-496.
8. Johnson W, Mortensen E, Kyvik K (2020). Gene–environment interplay between physical exercise and fitness and depres-sion symptomatology. Behav Genet, 50(5): 346-362.
9. Marques A, Gomez-Baya D, Peralta M, et al (2020). The effect of muscular strength on depression symptoms in adults: a sys-tematic review and meta-analysis. Int J Environ Res Public Health, 17(16): 5674.
10. Perez-Cruzado D, Cuesta-Vargas A, Vera-Garcia E, et al (2018). The relationship between quality of life and physical fitness in people with severe mental illness. Health Qual Life Outcomes, 16(1): 82.
11. Rahman M, Helgadottir B, Hallgren M, et al (2018). Cardiorespiratory fitness and re-sponse to exercise treatment in depres-sion. BJPsych Open, 4(5): 346-351.
12. Rica R, Shimojo G, Gomes M, et al (2020). Effects of a kinect‐based physical training program on body composition, func-tional fitness and depression in institu-tionalized older adults. Geriatr Gerontol Int, 20(3): 195-200.
13. Yeatts P, Martin S, Petrie T (2017). Physical fitness as a moderator of neuroticism and depression in adolescent boys and girls. Pers Individ Differ, 114: 30-35.
14. Dangi A, Aurangabadkar S, Deo M (2018). Effect of a structured yoga program on fatigue, depression, cardiorespiratory fit-ness, and quality of life in a postmeno-pausal breast cancer survivor. Int J Yoga, 11(3): 255-257.
15. Hallgren M, Kandola A, Stubbs B, et al (2020). Associations of exercise frequency and cardiorespiratory fitness with symp-toms of depression and anxiety-a cross-sectional study of 36,595 adults. Ment Heath Phys Act, 19: 100351.
16. Nikolakaros G, Vahlberg T, Sillanmaki L, et al (2020). Recurrent depression in child-hood and adolescence and low child-hood socioeconomic status predict low cardiorespiratory fitness in early adult-hood. J Affect Disord, 266: 782-792.
17. Ruggero C, Petrie T, Sheinbein S, et al (2015). Cardiorespiratory fitness may help in protecting against depression among middle school adolescents. J Adolesc Health, 57(1): 60-65.
18. Stubbs B, Rosenbaum S, Vancampfort D, et al (2016). Exercise improves cardiorespir-atory fitness in people with depression: a meta-analysis of randomized control tri-als. J Affect Disord, 190: 249-253.
19. Tonello L, Oliveira-Silva L, Medeiros A, et al (2019). Prediction of depression scores from aerobic fitness, body fatness, physi-cal activity, and vagal indices in non-exercising, female workers. Front Psychia-try, 10: 192.
20. Yamagata E, Yamada Y, Sugihara Y, et al (2013). Physical fitness and depression symptoms in community-dwelling elderly women. Nihon Koshu Eisei Zasshi, 60(4): 231-240.
21. Ren Z, Cao J, Li Y, et al (2020). Association between muscle strength and depressive symptoms among Chinese female college freshmen: a cross-sectional study. BMC Musculoskelet Disord, 21(1):510.
22. Esmaeilzadeh S (2015). The association be-tween depressive symptoms and physical status including physical activity, aerobic and muscular fitness tests in children. En-viron Health Prev Med, 20(6): 434-440.
23. Fukumori N, Yamamoto Y, Takegami M, et al (2015). Association between hand-grip strength and depressive symptoms: Lo-comotive syndrome and health outcomes in Aizu cohort study (LOHAS). Age Age-ing, 44(4): 592-598.
24. Gu Y, Li X, Zhang Q, et al (2021). Grip strength and depressive symptoms in a large-scale adult population: the TCLSIH cohort study. J Affect Disord, 279: 222-228.
25. Han K, Chang J, Yoon H, et al (2019). Rela-tionships between hand-grip strength, socioeconomic status, and depressive symptoms in community-dwelling older adults. J Affect Disord, 252: 263-270.
26. Jeong B (2020). Correlation of physical fit-ness with psychological well-being, stress, and depression in Korean adults. J Exerc Rehabil, 16(4): 351-355.
27. McDowell C, Gordon B, Herring M (2018). Sex-related differences in the association between grip strength and depression: Results from the Irish Longitudinal Study on Ageing. Exp Gerontol, 104: 147-152.
28. Park S, Cho J, Kim D, et al (2019). Handgrip strength, depression, and all-cause mor-tality in Korean older adults. BMC Geriatr, 19(1): 127.
29. Smith L, Firth J, Grabovac I, et al (2019). The association of grip strength with de-pressive symptoms and cortisol in hair: A cross‐sectional study of older adults. Scand J Med Sci Sports, 29(10): 1604-1609.
30. Alghwiri A, Khalil H, Al-Sharman A, El-Salem K (2018). Depression is a predictor for balance in people with multiple scle-rosis. Mult Scler Relat Disord, 24:28-31.
31. Dutta A, Kumar R, Malhotra S, et al (2013). A low-cost point-of-care testing system for psychomotor symptoms of depres-sion affecting standing balance: a prelim-inary study in India. Depress Res Treat, 2013:640861.
32. Byeon H (2019). Relationship between phys-ical activity level and depression of elderly people living alone. Int J Environ Res Public Health, 16(20): 4051.
33. Hocherman S, Dimant A, Schwartz M (2003). Visuo-motor coordination is normal in patients with major depression. Parkinsonism Relat Disord, 9(6): 361-366.
34. Choi M, Sohng K (2018). The effects of floor-seated exercise program on physical fitness, depression, and sleep in older adults: A cluster randomized controlled trial. Int J Gerontol, 12(2): 116-121.
35. Garber C, Blissmer B, Deschenes M, et al (2011). American College of Sports Med-icine position stand. Quantity and quality of exercise for developing and maintain-ing cardiorespiratory, musculoskeletal, and neuromotor fitness in apparently healthy adults: guidance for prescribing exercise. Med Sci Sports Exerc, 43(7): 1334-1359.
36. Borenstein M, Cooper H, Hedges L, et al (2009). Effect sizes for continuous data. The Handbook of Research Synthesis and Meta-analysis, 2: 221-235.
37. Cohen J (2013). Statistical power analysis for the behavioral sciences. New York: Routledge.
38. Kandola A, Osborn D, Stubbs B, et al (2020). Individual and combined associa-tions between cardiorespiratory fitness and grip strength with common mental disorders: a prospective cohort study in the UK Biobank. BMC Med, 18: 303.
39. Chun M, Choi J, Kang S, et al (2019). The relationship between health related physi-cal fitness, depression, and quality of life of the elderly. Journal of the Korea Convergence Society, 10(12): 387-397.
40. Lee M, Jung S, Bang H, et al (2018). The as-sociation between muscular strength and depression in Korean adults: a cross-sectional analysis of the sixth Korea Na-tional Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (KNHANES VI) 2014. BMC Public Health, 18(1): 1123.
41. Martin L, Neighbors H, Griffin D (2013). The experience of symptoms of depression in men vs. women: Analysis of the national comorbidity survey replication. JAMA Psychiatry, 70(10): 1100-1106.
42. Song MS, Kim SK, Kim NC (2011). A study on the correlation between elderly wom-en's depression and physical fitness. J Ko-rean Biol Nurs Sci, 13(1): 37-43.
43. Kim TH, Han TY, Choi YC (2019). Rela-tionship between Physical Fitness, Obesi-ty and Depression Index in Male and Female Elderly. Korean Journal of Sports Science, 28(6): 1187-1196.
44. Jung HS, Hyun MS (2011). Cardiorespiratory Fitness is Associated with Depression Symptom, Blood BDNF, and Cardiovas-cular Disease Risk Factor in Female Obese Adolescents. Korean Journal of Meas-urement and Evaluation in Physical Education and Sports Science, 13(2): 105-113.
45. Jang SW, Jung KI, Ko JG (2012). The relationship between the physical fitness and the mental health, academic achievement of elementary school students. Korean Journal of Elementary Physical Education, 18(2): 211-221.
46. Staples WH, Kays A, Richman R (2020). Ex-amination of the correlation between physical and psychological measures in community-dwelling older adults. Clin In-terv Aging, 15: 293-300.
47. Sener U, Ucok K, Ulasli AM, et al (2016). Evaluation of health‐related physical fit-ness parameters and association analysis with depression, anxiety, and quality of life in patients with fibromyalgia. Int J Rheum Dis, 19(8): 763-772.
48. You SE, Ko YS (2014). Evaluation on medi-ation model of physical fitness depend-ing on Sasang constitution in relation with obesity and depression. Korean Jour-nal of Measurement and Evaluation in Physical Education and Sports Science, 16: 67-82.
49. Lee SJ, Lim CG (2014). The effect of geriat-ric depression level on senior fitness, bal-ance, and falls efficacy scale in elderly women. Korean Journal of Sports Science, 23(3): 1291-1300.
50. Scopaz KA, Piva SR, Wisniewski S, et al (2009). Relationships of fear, anxiety, and depression with physical function in pa-tients with knee osteoarthritis. Arch Phys Med Rehabil, 90(11): 1866-1873.
51. Zhang M, Kim JC, Li Y, et al (2014). Rela-tion between anxiety, depression, and physical activity and performance in maintenance hemodialysis patients. J Ren Nutr, 24(4): 252-260.
| Files | ||
| Issue | Vol 51 No 11 (2022) | |
| Section | Review Article(s) | |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.18502/ijph.v51i11.11160 | |
| Keywords | ||
| Depression Physical fitness Meta-analysis Cardiovascular endurance Muscular strength | ||
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How to Cite
1.
Oh S, You J, Kim Y-W. Physical Fitness for Depression in Adolescents and Adults: A Meta-Analysis. Iran J Public Health. 2022;51(11):2425-2434.
