ABSTRACT
Objective@#To analyze the correlation between physical activity and depressive symptoms in adolescents, so as to provide a reference for the early prevention of depression among adolescents.@*Methods@#Using a random cluster sampling method, 8 102 adolescents from Shanghai, Urumqi, Changsha and Kunming were investigated via the Physical Activity Assessment Questionnaire of Chinese Children and Adolescents aged 7 to 18 and the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale (CES-D) for physical activity and depressive symptoms. Multivariate Logistic regression analysis was used to analyze the correlation between physical activity and depressive symptoms in adolescents.@*Results@#The proportion of adolescents who met moderate to vigorous physical activity (MVPA) standard was 37.0%, and the detection rate of depressive symptoms was 25.6%. The detection rate of depressive symptomsin compliant with MVPA standard group was significantly lower than that in non compliant group among different age and gender( χ 2=7.62-34.54, P <0.05). Adolescents with severe depressive symptoms had high light intensity physical activity(LPA) duration and low vigorous intensity physical activity(VPA) duration, while adolescents with mild depressive symptoms or asymptomatic adolescents had higher MVPA duration. There were differences in LPA and VPA among adolescents with different levels of depressive symptoms in the overall sample, and the differences were still significant among girls, middle school and statistically significant differences in LPA, moderate intensity physical activity(MPA), MVPA were also found among the high school subgroup. However, differences only in LPA were observed among boys with different levels of depression( H=46.48, 10.31, 25.02, 29.54, 30.25, 19.80, 22.20, 9.54, 8.62, 18.06, P <0.05). Multivariate Logistic regression model showed that gender and duration of MVPA were significantly related to risk of depressive symptoms( OR=1.56, 1.42, P <0.05).@*Conclusion@#Physical activity among adolescents is significantly related to depressive symptoms. MVPA may be an effective measure to reduce the degree of depressive symptoms.To improve the physical health and prevent depression among adolescents, it is important to choose appropriate physical activity types and effectively increase the duration of MVPA.