Sintomatologia depressiva, atividade física e comportamento sedentário em idosos: um estudo longitudinal

Abstract

Depressive symptoms have been associated with lifestyle-related behaviors, such as physical activity (PA) and sedentary behavior (SB). The risk of developing depressive symptoms is higher in individuals who are physically inactive and/or have a long time in sedentary behavior; on the other hand, the regular practice of physical activity contributes to the prevention and reduction of symptoms. Although there are studies investigating the relationship between these variables, few have been conducted on the trajectories of behaviors over time and in the elderly population. Thus, the present study aims to identify the incidence of depressive symptoms and its association with physical activity and sedentary behavior through its trajectories in community-dwelling elderly people in a five-year follow-up (2015-2020). This work is part of the Longitudinal Study of the Health of the Elderly of Alcobaça-BA, an exploratory study of the prospective cohort survey type. The population comprised elderly people aged 60 years or older registered in the Family Health Strategy - ESF, 473 elderly people participated in the first wave and 230 in the second wave, obtaining a sample of 208 elderly people. Sociodemographic, health, and behavioral information was collected. The depressive symptomatology was verified by means of the Geriatric Depression Scale - GDS-15 and the cutoff point adopted for the presence of depressive symptoms was >5 points. The level of PA and exposure time to SB were measured using the International Physical Activity Questionnaire - IPAQ. For data analysis we used descriptive statistics (mean and standard deviation) and inferential procedures (Robust Poisson Regression Models and Receiver Operating Characteristic -ROC curve) p≤0.05. The incidence of depressive symptomatology was 11.1%, being 6.3% for men and 14.0% for women. The PA trajectory evidenced a higher relative risk for developing depressive symptoms in the physically inactive elderly in both the first and second wave (RR 4.34 95%CI1.21-15.56) in the adjusted analysis. Similarly, the SB trajectory evidenced that having high SB at both waves demonstrated 3.53 (95%CI1.02-12.22) increased risk of developing depressive symptoms in the crude and adjusted analysis. The cut-off points of ≤ 400 min/week for men and ≤ 140 min/week for women of moderate or vigorous intensity PA accumulated in different domains, showed better discriminant values for the presence of depressive symptomatology in community-dwelling elderly. The values found in the SB were not potential to discriminate depressive symptoms in elderly from Alcobaça, BA. Older adults who were physically inactive and/or with high SB after 5 years from baseline had a higher risk of developing depressive symptoms than older adults who were physically active and/or with low SB. In addition, men needed to perform more PA than women for better levels of depressive symptoms. Physical inactivity and SB are modifiable factors, and the elderly population should be encouraged to replace these behaviors by PA practices and stimulate their maintenance throughout life for greater benefits on depressive symptoms.