The benefits of exercise and daily activity for our physical health is well established in the medical literature. In addition, evidence continues to grow on the mental and emotional health benefits of exercise. Previous research has demonstrated participants who are more active have lower rates of depression and anxiety compared to their sedentary peers. Interestingly, the literature has also shown exercise can both decrease an individual’s risk of future depression symptoms, as well as, help reduce symptoms in patients diagnosed with depression. As an aside, depression is a serious diagnosis and should be treated, in part with exercise, by a healthcare provider. A recent study demonstrated the impact of daily walking on depression symptoms.
A large systematic review was published in the Journal of the American Medical Association on the association between daily step count and depression (Bizzozero-Peroni et al. 2024). Authors included 33 studies on close to 100,000 participants. As expected authors found higher daily step counts were associated with lower rates of depression symptoms. Specifically, participants who walked > 5000 steps and > 7000 steps per day reported less depressive symptoms and had a lower risk of future depression, respectively. An association was also seen with higher step counts and further reductions in depression symptoms.
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