The association between physical activity and depression in cancer patients: A cross-sectional study from NHANES 2007-2018

Abstract

Abstract Low-intensity physical activity is associated with increased depressive symptoms in the general population, however, their relationship is still unclear in cancer patients. The primary aim of this study is to explore the relationship between physical activity and depression in cancer patients. 1993 participants aged 20 to 79 years from the 2007–2018 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) were obtained to participate in this study. All analyzes were performed using EmpowerStats and R software(version 3.4.3), and multivariate logistic regression analyses were conducted. Of the 1993 participants with cancer, 254 (12.70%) reported depression. After adjusting for all confounders, participants with high-intensity physical activity had a 40% lower rate of depression compared to participants with low-intensity physical activity(OR = 0.60[95% CI 0.45, 0.81]). We made further analyses stratified and the results showed that in the fully adjusted model, physical activity had a significant effect on the risk of depression for participants who were female, age < 60 years, non-Hispanic white, educated less than 11th grade, divorced/separated, and former smokers, and the difference was statistically significant (p < 0.05). Physical activity is an independent risk factor for the incidence of depression, and low-intensity physical activity is associated with elevated depressive symptoms in cancer patients.