Sedentary Behavior and Depressive Symptoms: Influence of Specific Domains of Sedentary Behavior

• Grant number: 25/12753-0
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Master
• Start date: August 01, 2025
• End date: May 31, 2027
• Field of knowledge: Health Sciences - Physical Education
• Principal Investigator: Saulo dos Santos Gil
• Grantee: Alexandre Silva Martins
• Host Institution: Universidade de Santo Amaro (UNISA). São Paulo , SP, Brazil
• Associated research grant: 23/15629-3 - Sedentary behavior and depressive symptoms: influence of specific domains of sedentary behaviour, AP.R

Abstract

Depressive symptoms are commonly observed in the general population. Individuals withsubclinical forms of depression (e.g., not meet the criteria to major depression disorder)are at increased risk of mortality than the general population which is partially explainedby the higher incidence of cardiovascular diseases. Currently, the effectiveness of thefrontline treatment for depression is not consensual. Further, it also may be expensive forindividuals with mild to moderate depression. Sedentary behavior is an independent riskfactor for cardiometabolic diseases and mental disorders. However, recent evidencesuggests that not all types of sedentary behavior are equally detrimental. For instance,mentally passive sedentary behavior (e.g., watching TV) appear to be detrimental forhealth outcomes whereas mentally active sedentary behavior (e.g., desk-based officework) appear to offer health benefits. However, more studies are required to determinethe magnitude of association between distinct types of sedentary behaviors (e.g., watchingTV, listening to music, talking while sitting, sitting around and doing nothing special)with depressive symptoms as well as randomized clinical trials investigating potentialbenefits of interventions to replace mentally-passive sedentary behaviors with mentallyactive sedentary behaviors, light physical activity or moderate-to-vigorous activity inindividuals with mild to moderate depression. Therefore, the aim of this proposal is toinvestigate the influence of mentally passive sedentary behavior (i.e., watching TV,listening to music, talking while sitting, sitting around, and doing nothing special) ondepressive symptoms. For it, we designed two studies in which the main purpose of eachone is: STUDY-1) "To determine the association between different sedentary behaviorand depressive symptoms"; STUDY-2) "To investigate the effects of an intervention toreplace mentally passive sedentary behaviors with mentally active sedentary behaviors,light physical activity, or moderate-to-vigorous activity in individuals with mild tomoderate depression". STUDY 1 consists of cross-sectional study. Participants willundergo a semi-structured interview to record sociodemographic characteristic (i.e., age,sex, marital status, ethnicity, family income), comorbidities, parameters related tolifestyle (i.e., level of physical activity and sedentary behavior), use of tobacco andmedication, symptoms of anxiety and depression, quality of life and a batteryof tests toexamine anthropometry (i.e., weight, height, bioimpedance, body circumferences),physical function (i.e., handgrip strength, Timed stands and time-up-and-go test) andmeasurement of blood pressure and heart rate at rest. Crude and adjusted linear regressionmodels will be utilized for verify the magnitude of associations between sedentarybehavior and depressive symptoms. STUDY 2 is a randomized clinical trial. Participantswith mild to severe depressive symptoms will be randomly assigned (1:1) into eitherINTERVENTION or CONTROL group, using a computer-generated randomizationcode. Depressive symptoms, quality of life, physical activity, sedentary behavior, bodycomposition, and functionality will be assessed at baseline (PRE) and 4 (POST) monthsafter the experimental period. The INTERVENTION group will participate in a 4-monthgoal-setting intervention aimed to replace mentally passive sedentary behaviors withmentally active sedentary behaviors, light physical activity, or moderate-to-vigorousactivity while CONTROL group will receive general instructions related to WHOguidelines for physical activity. The knowledge emerging from this research may beuseful to early design interventions to mitigate the risk factors for cardiovascular diseaseand aggravation of signs and symptoms of depression and mitigate the increasing globalmental health burden.