People who walk more each day are less likely to have depression
People who walk a higher number of steps each day are less likely to have depressive symptoms, according to international researchers who combined the results of 33 previous studies looking at the link between step count and depression. Using data from nearly 100,000 adults, the researchers say the higher a person’s step count, the less likely they were to have depression, with reaching 5000 and 7500 steps a day both associated with lower risks. This study can’t prove the higher step count causes the lower depression risk, but the researchers say more work should be done to see if increasing your step count could help protect against depression.
Journal/conference: JAMA Network Open
Research: Paper
Organisation/s: Universidad de Castilla-La Mancha, Spain
Funder: This study was supported by grants 2020-PREDUCLM-16746 from the University of Castilla-La Mancha (Dr Bizzozero-Peroni), cofinanced by the European Social Fund; POS_EXT_2023 _1_175630 from the National Agency for Research and Innovation (Ms Díaz-Goñi); and 2022-UNIVERS-11373 from the University of Castilla-La Mancha (Ms Rodríguez-Gutiérrez). The research group leading this study (Dr Bizzozero-Peroni, Mss Díaz-Goñi and Rodríguez-Gutiérrez, Dr Sequí-Domínguez, Dr Núñez de Arenas-Arroyo, and Drs Martínez-Vizcaíno and Mesas) received award RD21/0016/0025 on the call for the creation of Health Outcomes-Oriented Cooperative Research Networks from the Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness of Spain and is supported by the Carlos III Health Institute, the European Regional Development Fund, and the European Union’s Next Generation EU initiative.
Media release
From: JAMA
About The Study: In this systematic review and meta-analysis of 33 observational studies involving 96,000 adults, higher daily step counts were associated with fewer depressive symptoms in cross-sectional and longitudinal studies in the general adult population. Further prospective cohort studies are needed to clarify the potential protective role of daily steps in mitigating the risk of depression during adulthood.
