Förebyggande effekter av fysisk aktivitet på depression
? en litteraturstudie
Objective: To study the evidence on physical activity (PA) as an effective preventive strategy for depression.Methods: A search of electronic databases was performed for articles between 2007 and 2012, both original research and review articles, concerning the link between PA and depression on children, youth and adults. Three reviews, five longitudinal and two cross sectional studies were included.Results: PA reduced the likelihood of depression in many studies and a sedentary or inactive lifestyle increased the risks for mental health symptoms such as depression. One study showed that low PA in childhood increased the odds of depression as an adult and other studies on teenagers saw a connection and mediation between PA and self-esteem whereas physical fitness showed no mediating effect. Many of the studies and reviews point out the insecurity regarding the dose-response association and the difficulties in defining causality.Conclusion: PA might have a preventive effect on depression. Some evidence exist to support that PA in childhood prevents depression in adults. The complex mechanism and causality need further attention and quality research is needed to determine the nature of the relationship and to verify the effectiveness of preventive programs.