Key result
Moderate physical activity linked to ~37% lower heart disease risk in patients with depression.
Why the study?
The study was conducted to assess the impact of depression and physical activity of different intensities on the incidence of heart disease.
Does moderate-intensity and vigorous-intensity physical activity reduce the incidence of heart disease in European middle-aged and older adults with depression?
Cohort (n=20,645)
Yes
Does moderate-intensity and vigorous-intensity physical activity reduce the incidence of heart disease in European middle-aged and older adults with depression?
Effect estimate: HR 0.63 (95% CI 0.50-0.78)
Moderate and vigorous physical activity significantly counteracts the increased risk of incident heart disease associated with depression in middle-aged and older adults.
Should not yet change practice in depression; leaves open confirmation of benefit in randomized trials.
OBJECTIVE: To assess the impact of depression and physical activity (PA) of different intensities on the incidence of heart disease. METHODS: A prospective cohort study with 20 645 European middle-aged and older adults (mean baseline age 63 years; 55.1% women; median follow-up 9.5 years) was conducted using data from the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe. The EURO-D 12-item scale assessed depression. Moderate-intensity and vigorous-intensity PA and heart disease diagnoses were self-reported. We classified participants into the following four groups: (1) depression plus low PA, (2) no depression plus low PA, (3) depression plus moderate/high PA, (4) no depression plus moderate/high PA. Hazard ratio (HR) and 95% confidence interval (CI) were estimated using Cox proportional hazards models adjusted for confounders. RESULTS: Compared with having depression and low PA levels, adjusted HR for heart disease similarly decreased for participants with depression and moderate/high PA (moderate-intensity PA: HR=0.63, 95% CI=0.50, 0.78; vigorous-intensity PA: HR=0.69, 95% CI=0.53, 0.89) and participants without depression and low PA (moderate-intensity PA: HR=0.64, 95% CI=0.50, 0.82; vigorous-intensity PA: HR=0.68, 95% CI=0.58, 0.80). The greatest risk reduction was found in participants without depression and moderate/high PA (moderate-intensity PA: HR=0.46, 95% CI=0.37, 0.55; vigorous-intensity PA: HR=0.48, 95% CI=0.40, 0.58). CONCLUSION: Moderate-intensity and vigorous-intensity PA seems to counteract the increased risk for heart disease associated with depression. This highlights the importance of PA as a possible intervention strategy aiming to manage the risk of heart disease among people with depression.
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Peralta et al. (2025) conducted a cohort in Heart disease (n=20,645). Moderate-intensity and vigorous-intensity physical activity vs. Low physical activity was evaluated on Incidence of heart disease (HR 0.63, 95% CI 0.50-0.78). Moderate-intensity physical activity reduced the risk of heart disease in participants with depression compared to those with depression and low physical activity (HR 0.63; 95% CI 0.50-0.78).
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