Associations of self-reported physical activity and depression

The purpose of a study recently published in BMC Public Health was to investigate the cross-sectional associations between self-reported physical activity (PA) and depressive symptoms and status using data from of over 10,000 Irish adults from two existing datasets, i.e. The Irish Longitudinal Study on Ageing (TILDA) and The Mitchelstown Cohort Study.
The databases of the two studies were pooled  and relevant variables were harmonized. PA was measured using the short form International Physical Activity Questionnaire. Depressive symptoms were measured by the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression (CES-D) questionnaire. Participants were classified as meeting World Health Organization moderate-to-vigorous PA (MVPA) guidelines or not, and divided into tertiles based on weekly minutes of MVPA. A CES-D score of ≥16 indicated elevated depressive symptoms.
Significantly higher depressive symptoms were reported by women than by men. Meeting the PA guidelines was associated with 44.7% lower odds of elevated depressive symptoms., and study participants in the highest PA tertile had 50.8% lower odds of elevated depressive symptoms, than participants in the lowest PA tertile.
In conclusion: meeting the PA guidelines was associated with lower odds of elevated depressive symptoms, and increased volumes of MVPA are associated with lower odds of elevated depressive symptoms.