{"title":"Outdoor activity time and depression risk among adults aged 40 years and older: a cross-sectional analysis of NHANES 2011-2018 data.","authors":"Kai Liu, Cheng Guo, Juan Xie, Liming Cheng","doi":"10.3389/fpsyg.2025.1506168","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Background: </strong>Depression is a significant global public health issue, affecting millions worldwide. Outdoor activities have shown potential mental health benefits, but the specific mechanisms and influencing factors remain unclear.</p><p><strong>Objectives: </strong>This study aimed to investigate the association between time spent outdoors and depression risk among U.S. adults, with a focus on variations across age and ethnic groups.</p><p><strong>Methods: </strong>Using data from the NHANES 2011-2018 survey, we analyzed 9,036 adults aged 20 years and older. Participants self-reported their outdoor activity time and depressive symptoms. Statistical analysis, accounting for various demographic and lifestyle factors, was employed to assess the relationship between outdoor activity and depression risk.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>Spending more time outdoors was associated with a 51% lower risk of depression (odds ratio: 0.51, 95% CI: 0.40-0.64). Subgroup analysis revealed that this association was particularly pronounced among adults aged 40 and older, as well as non-Hispanic whites and non-Hispanic blacks.</p><p><strong>Conclusion: </strong>Encouraging outdoor activities may represent an effective public health strategy to reduce depression risk, particularly among middle-aged and older adults and specific ethnic populations. Public health policies should prioritize initiatives that encourage outdoor engagement, and future research is needed to explore the underlying mechanisms and population-specific responses to outdoor activity.</p>","PeriodicalId":12525,"journal":{"name":"Frontiers in Psychology","volume":"16 ","pages":"1506168"},"PeriodicalIF":2.9000,"publicationDate":"2025-01-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC11794181/pdf/","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Frontiers in Psychology","FirstCategoryId":"102","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2025.1506168","RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"2025/1/1 0:00:00","PubModel":"eCollection","JCR":"Q2","JCRName":"PSYCHOLOGY, MULTIDISCIPLINARY","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
Background: Depression is a significant global public health issue, affecting millions worldwide. Outdoor activities have shown potential mental health benefits, but the specific mechanisms and influencing factors remain unclear.
Objectives: This study aimed to investigate the association between time spent outdoors and depression risk among U.S. adults, with a focus on variations across age and ethnic groups.
Methods: Using data from the NHANES 2011-2018 survey, we analyzed 9,036 adults aged 20 years and older. Participants self-reported their outdoor activity time and depressive symptoms. Statistical analysis, accounting for various demographic and lifestyle factors, was employed to assess the relationship between outdoor activity and depression risk.
Results: Spending more time outdoors was associated with a 51% lower risk of depression (odds ratio: 0.51, 95% CI: 0.40-0.64). Subgroup analysis revealed that this association was particularly pronounced among adults aged 40 and older, as well as non-Hispanic whites and non-Hispanic blacks.
Conclusion: Encouraging outdoor activities may represent an effective public health strategy to reduce depression risk, particularly among middle-aged and older adults and specific ethnic populations. Public health policies should prioritize initiatives that encourage outdoor engagement, and future research is needed to explore the underlying mechanisms and population-specific responses to outdoor activity.
期刊介绍：
Frontiers in Psychology is the largest journal in its field, publishing rigorously peer-reviewed research across the psychological sciences, from clinical research to cognitive science, from perception to consciousness, from imaging studies to human factors, and from animal cognition to social psychology. Field Chief Editor Axel Cleeremans at the Free University of Brussels is supported by an outstanding Editorial Board of international researchers. This multidisciplinary open-access journal is at the forefront of disseminating and communicating scientific knowledge and impactful discoveries to researchers, academics, clinicians and the public worldwide. The journal publishes the best research across the entire field of psychology. Today, psychological science is becoming increasingly important at all levels of society, from the treatment of clinical disorders to our basic understanding of how the mind works. It is highly interdisciplinary, borrowing questions from philosophy, methods from neuroscience and insights from clinical practice - all in the goal of furthering our grasp of human nature and society, as well as our ability to develop new intervention methods.
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