Depression: Sport also protects children

Larissa Melville completed her traineeship in the editorial team of . After studying biology at Ludwig Maximilians University and the Technical University of Munich, she first got to know digital media online at Focus and then decided to learn medical journalism from scratch.

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It has long been known that physical activity can protect adults from depression. Whether this is also the case with children has only now been investigated.

Tonje Zahl and her colleagues from the Natural Science University in Oslo (NTNU) followed children for four years and observed whether there was a connection between physical activity and the occurrence of depressive symptoms.

Romp, fight, sweat

In fact, it was found that after two and four years, those children who were physically active had fewer symptoms of depression than those who never worked out. “Being active, sweating and romping around is not only good for the body. It also protects against depression, ”says Zahl.This is important to know, because activity can already be used in a targeted manner in childhood to prevent depression - or to treat it, adds co-author Silje Steinsbekk. However, she also emphasizes that the results still need to be verified in larger studies.

A total of 800 six-year-old children and their parents took part in the study. At the beginning, the researchers measured the children's activity using acceleration sensors like those built into smartphones. They classified a physical activity as “active” if it made the children sweat and made them breathless. After two and four years, they interviewed parents about their child's mental health. The children themselves were also interviewed.

Depression in Children

Depression in children is easily overlooked. On the one hand, because symptoms such as sadness, anxiety or loss of interest are often taken less seriously. On the other hand, because their symptoms are often different from those of adults. In fact, depression is one of the most common mental disorders in children: around one to two percent of children of preschool and elementary school age are affected.

Sources:

Zahl T. et al .: Physical Activity, Sedentary Behavior, and Symptoms of Major Depression in Middle Childhood. Pediatrics, February 2017.

Press release from the Norwegian University of Science and Technology dated January 31, 2017: Physically active children are less depressed

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