News – Exercise has long been recommended as a behavioral therapy for depressed patients, but new evidence from the University of California de San Diego suggests that COVID-19 pandemics have altered the the link between physical activity and mental health.
In a study of college students conducted before and during the pandemic, the results showed that subjects ’average grades declined from 10,000 to 4,600 degrees per day and depreciation rates increased from 32% to 61%.
The research, recently published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, also showed that short-term recovery from exercise does not improve mental well-being.
“This raises many possible explanations, including that the impact of physical activity may require longer intervention,” said co-author Sally Sadoff, co-professor related to economics and strategy at the Rady UC San Diego School of Management. “At the same time, our results clearly show that those who maintained physical activity throughout the pandemic were the most stable and prone to depression.”
Sadoff said there is a 15 to 18 percent point difference in depression levels between participants who had significant mobility difficulties, compared to those who maintained their habits.
Sadoff and coauthors from the University of Pittsburg and Carnegie Mellon University point to the alarming trend of depression among young adults (ages 18-24) during the pandemic, which is twice as high as the population in general.
The students in the study reiterated several studies about their well-being and the use of time over term. Between March and July 2020, depression rates rose by 90%, compared to pre-pandemic rates.
Fitbit data helps fill gaps in understanding the role of mobility in mental health
The study enrolled multiple consortia of hundreds of U.S. college students from February 2019 through July 2020. In addition to completing surveys, participants received accessible devices (Fitbits) that monitor their activity levels. The 2020 cohort participants began the study in February and continued to participate after their university moved all classes online in March and encouraged students not to return to campus.
Topics included sleep 25 to 30 minutes per night, time spent socially decreased by more than half (less than 30 minutes per day), and screen time more than doubled to five or more hours per day.
The researchers found that a significant reduction in physical activity during COVID-19 was strongly associated with higher levels of depression. Minutes of physical activity translate into about 10 minutes in which the heart rate is raised enough to burn at least 1.5 times as many calories as it is at rest.
Those who suffered a reduction of one to two hours of daily physical activity were at risk of depression during the pandemic, while participants who were able to keep their daily routines to a minimum.
“This relationship is one that only emerges through the pandemic,” the authors note. “Prior to the pandemic, there was no strong association between changes in physical activity and mental health, but our analyzes show that disruption to physical activity is currently a major risk factor for depression. “
Short-term resumption of exercise routines does not bring mental health relief
To investigate whether policy intervention could help counteract some of the adverse effects of pandemic disease on mental health, the researchers implemented a randomized trial.
Half of the participants were encouraged to walk at least 10,000 steps a day for two weeks. The strategy significantly increased their average steps by about 2,300 steps per day and physical activity nearly 40 min per day, compared to the other half of subjects. However, the effect of exercise did not reverse to an improvement in mental health, nor did it motivate the students to keep up with the physical activity after the last two weeks.
“Physical activity may have an important interaction with other lifestyle behaviors such as social interaction,” the authors write. “It could also be that the relationship between physical activity and depression is driven more by mental health than by lifestyle habits. ”
They conclude that more research is needed to understand how you can improve physical and mental health in times of such stress.
Adds, “The pandemic has undermined the relationship between maintaining lifestyle habits and mental health. ”
Co-authors include Osea Giuntella, associate professor of economics at the University of Pittsburg; Kelly Hyde, a graduate student in the economics department at the University of Pittsburg; and Silvia Saccardo, associate professor of management at Carnegie Mellon University.