Children who get more exercise may have fewer symptoms of depression than their peers who are less active, a recent study suggests.
Researchers used activity trackers to see how much physical activity children got, then interviewed kids and their parents to assess whether kids had symptoms of depression.
When kids got more moderate to vigorous physical activity at ages 6 and 8, they were less likely to have symptoms of major depressive disorder two years later, the study found.
While plenty of research has documented the potential for exercise to boost mood and help with depression for adults, less is known about the ways activity may influence mental health in young children. Often, depression and other mental health disorders don’t emerge until adolescence or early adulthood.
The study included a sample of children from Trondheim. Researchers surveyed parents to assess children’s mental health at age 6, then did follow-up interviews with parents and kids at age 8 and 10 to determine whether they had symptoms of depression.
Altogether, they had data on 795 kids at age 6, 699 at age 8 and 702 at age 10.
At ages 6 and 8, children were asked to wear accelerometers to track their movements for one week, removing the devices only to bathe. The accelerometers showed that at age 6, kids typically got about 1.19 hours a day of moderate to vigorous physical activity and had 8.58 hours of sedentary time.
At age 8, active time was 1.18 hours a day on average with 9.22 hours of sedentary time.
By age 10, active time dipped to 1.09 hours on a typical day with 9.94 hours of sedentary time.
Researchers assessed kids for nine different symptoms of depression and found on average, kids had 0.52 symptoms at ages 6 and 10, with 0.46 at age 8.
Higher levels of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity at 6 and 8 predicted fewer symptoms of major depressive disorder two years later, with every extra hour of such activity linked with a moderate decrease in symptoms.
The study didn’t find an association between inactivity and symptoms of depression, however.
REUTERS