Assessment of Bidirectional Relationships Between Physical Activity and Depression Among Adults (2019) Choi et al

https://neurosciencenews.com/exercise-depression-10619/

I've posted this not for the headline story but two parts of it. One,

they have data from 91,000 people who wore accelerometers, 91,000 people who didn't find them so annoying that they refused to wear them. Admittedly changes in technology over time may (probably) have made them more comfortable but it shows it can be done.

Two,

self-reported activity data is not as accurate as accelerometer recorded activity data.

Nothing earth-shattering but I thought it was nice that the two points were confirmed completely independently.

 

Interesting!

 

(off topic)

is it purely the physical activity, or is it partly the interaction with your local community and built / natural environment, that decreases depression ?

i'd like to see this research repeated, with wheelchair/aid dependent people. arbitrary goal of leaving the house (using aids), with subsequent benefits of being amidst your local community; opportunity to nod, smile, chat briefly with neighbours and interact with strangers; be among trees rivers birds animals wildlife weather; choose where you want to travel, explore new places shops cafes ...

my happiest moments are wandering about randomly on my mobility scooter, meeting people, enjoying the scenery etc.

 

It’s good to have hard data on those two items.

On the original study, I would also wonder about confounding. Did whatever led to the depression also cause the reduction in activity?

I am not sure they’ve actually proved causation. Post hoc ergo proper hoc (after this therefore because of this) is considered a logical fallacy.

There’s an association is all I can see they can assert, from what I read in the article.

 

Thanks. This is bookmarked.

 

Sounds as if it's still not clear if exercise protects or if there is some process that causes low physical activity levels and also increases risk of depression.

 

A further thought I had on this. I can't get my head around if the Biobank cohort is the one with the accelerometers. If it is, would there be any value in looking for any of that cohort who are diagnosed with ME (or CFS as it most probably will be) and analysing the data? If there are pwME who wore accelerometers, compare them to healthy wearers, or other illness groups, as an example.