Less screen time and more sleep may help prevent depression
There is now evolving data exploring the relationship between depression and various individual lifestyle factors such as diet, physical activity, sleep, alcohol intake, and tobacco smoking.
A cross-sectional and longitudinal analysis of data from the UK Biobank, involving almost 85,000 people, has found that lifestyle factors such as less screen time, adequate sleep, a better-quality diet, and physical activity strongly impact depression.
With evolving data exploring the link between depression and lifestyle factors, the international research team led by Western Sydney University say their findings published today in BMC Medicine may help inform public health policy.
The study found:
- A significant relationship between physical activity, healthy diet, and optimal sleep (7-9 hours) was associated with less frequency of depressed mood.
- Screen time and tobacco smoking were also significantly associated with higher frequency of depressed mood.
- Over time, the lifestyle factors which were protective of depressed mood in both individuals with clinical depression and those without a depressive disorder was optimal sleep (7-9 hours) and lower screen time, while a better-quality diet was indicated to be protective of depressed mood in those without depression
- A higher frequency of alcohol consumption was surprisingly associated with reduced frequency of depressed mood in people with depression. This may potentially be due to the self-medicating use of alcohol by those with depression to manage their mood.
https://bmcmedicine.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12916-020-01813-5
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