Physical activity, low-grade inflammation, and psychological responses to the COVID-19 pandemic among older adults in England

OBJECTIVE: Depression and anxiety impose a significant burden on older adults. While the protective effects of physical activity (PA) are well-documented, less is known about the interplay between PA, low-grade inflammation, and mental health. Biobehavioural mechanisms underpinning mental health may become more prominent when encountering novel stressors, which were particularly prevalent during the COVID-19 pandemic. Leveraging data of a national sample of older adults from England, this study tested (1) if pre-pandemic PA and its changes during the pandemic were associated with mental health responses; (2) if older adults with low-grade inflammation experienced greater increases in depression and anxiety, compared to pre-pandemic levels; (3) if PA attenuated the inflammation-mental health associations. METHODS: The study used data from the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing, a cohort study following a national sample aged 50 + (N = 5829). Information on mental health and PA was collected before the pandemic (2016/17 and 2018/19) and during November and December 2020. Inflammation was ascertained using pre-pandemic C-reactive protein (CRP). Analyses were adjusted for sociodemographic and health-related factors and pre-pandemic mental health. RESULTS: Increasing PA from before to during the pandemic was linked to reduced odds of depression (OR = 0.955, 95 % CI [0.937; 0.974]) and anxiety (OR = 0.954, 95 % CI [0.927; 0.982]). Higher pre-pandemic PA was associated with reduced odds of depression (OR = 0.964, 95 % CI [0.948; 0.981]) and anxiety (OR = 0.976, 95 % CI [0.953; 1.000]), whereas elevated CRP was associated with 1.343 times higher odds of depression (95 % CI [1.100; 1.641]). PA did not attenuate the inflammation-depression association. CONCLUSIONS: The findings suggest that PA may contribute to psychological resilience against stressful life events among older adults but does not appear to mitigate the adverse effects of systemic inflammation on mental health. Further research is needed to explore the psychobiological pathways underlying this protective mechanism.