Regular Exercise and Depressive Symptoms in Community-Dwelling Elders in Northern Taiwan

According to World Health Organization, depressive disorder will be a Top 2 disease in the world by 2020. In light of Taiwan's rapidly increasing elderly population, elderly psychological health is expected to become an increasingly important issue in healthcare.

This study examines the association between regular exercise and depressive symptoms in community-dwelling older adults by gender in northern Taiwan.

The participants were selected using a probability-proportional-to-size procedure from community-dwelling adults who were aged 65 years or older and living in northern Taiwan. A cross-sectional study and interviews were used to collect information about their exercise behaviors, depressive symptoms, and the factors influencing the depressive symptoms. Percentage, chi-square, t test, and logistic regression were used to analyze the data.

One thousand twenty elderly individuals completed the questionnaires. Among the participants with the average age of 73.5 years, 44.5% were men, and 55.5% were women. Two hundred seventeen of the participants (21.3%) had depressive symptoms. Five hundred eighty-five of the participants (57.4%) exercised regularly. The result of logistic regression showed that regular exercise was a significant predictor of depressive symptoms in elderly individuals (odds ratio = 3.54, 95% confidence interval [1.76, 7.12]). Other factors such as gender, chronicle diseases, and health status were not related to depressive symptoms. Moreover, both for male and female individuals, regular exercise was a significant predictor of depressive symptoms (odds ratio = 4.76, 95% confidence interval [1.65, 13.72] and odds ratio = 3.03, 95% confidence interval [1.18, 7.69], respectively). Other factors were not related to depressive symptoms.

This study shows regular exercise to be a significant predictor of depressive symptoms in both men and women. Therefore, senior citizens should be encouragedto exercise regularly as a way to promote good mental health.