Daily activity accumulation patterns and depressive symptoms among adolescents: a latent profile approach

This study aims to identify and characterize daily activity accumulation patterns (bouts of physical activity and sedentary behavior) among adolescents and then to explore the associations between these groups and depressive symptoms.

A total of 521 adolescents aged 13-18 years from Wuhan and Changsha, China, were included. Bouts of physical activity (PA) and sedentary behavior (SED) were measured using accelerometers. The Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale was used to assess participants' depressive symptoms. Latent profile analysis was employed to identify distinct groups based on their activity patterns.

Three distinct groups were identified: "Prolonged sitters" (n = 149, 28.6%), "Sitters" (n = 224, 43.0%), and "Movers" (n = 148, 28.4%). After adjusted controlling for potential confounders, compared with the prolonged sitters, "Movers" [β (95% CI) = -3.6 (-5.912, -1.388)] exhibited the lowest score of depressive symptoms, followed by the "Sitters" [β (95% CI) = -2.3 (-4.240, -0.325)].

The synergistic effect of strategies to reduce total SED duration by limiting SED bouts to 30 min or less and increasing light physical activity (LPA) may also be effective in alleviating depressive symptoms in adolescents.