Midlife Exercise Significantly Cuts Late-Life Depression
Higher levels of fitness during midlife are tied to a lower risk of depression, death due to cardiovascular disease (CVD), and CVD death after incident depression later in life compared with lower fitness levels, according to new research.
These findings emerged from a retrospective conducted as part of the Cooper Center Longitudinal Study. A total of 17,989 generally healthy men and women (mean age 50.0 years) without depression, myocardial infarction, or stroke were included in the present analysis.
_________________________________________________________________________________
YOU MAY ALSO LIKE
How Much Exercise Is Needed to Keep the Heart Young?
Depressive Symptoms Reduced With Resistance Exercise
_________________________________________________________________________________
Data from preventive medicine examinations at midlife performed between 1999 to 2010 were obtained and analyzed.
The primary outcomes of the study were defined as a depression diagnosis from Medicare files and CVD mortality, determined via established algorithms and National Death Index records, respectively.
A total of 2701 depression diagnoses, 610 deaths due to CVD without prior depression, and 231 deaths due to CVD after depression occurred over the course of 117,218 person-years of Medicare follow-up.
Results of the study indicated that higher levels of midlife fitness were associated with a 16% decrease in the risk for depression (hazard ratio [HR] 0.04) compared with lower levels of fitness. In addition, high levels of fitness were found to lower the risks of death due to CVD without depression and after a diagnosis of depression by 61% (HR 0.39) and 56% (HR 0.44), respectively, vs lower fitness levels.
“These findings suggest the importance of midlife fitness in primary prevention of depression and subsequent CVD mortality in older age and should encourage physicians to consider fitness and physical activity in promoting healthy aging,” the researchers wrote.
—Christina Vogt
Reference:
Willis BL, Leonard D, Barlow CE, et al. Association of midlife cardiorespiratory fitness with incident depression and cardiovascular death after depression later in life [Published online June 27, 2018]. JAMA Psychiatry. doi:10.1001/jamapsychiatry.2018.1467