Watching sports helps ward off depression in older adults

Watching sports, either on-site or through the TV or internet, may help elderly adults avoid depressive symptoms, reports a recent Japan study.

The researchers conducted a cross-sectional analysis using data drawn from the Japan Gerontological Evaluation Study, including 21,317 participants (aged ≥65 years, 10,993 women). Through a nationwide mail service, participants were surveyed for their sports-watching habits; depressive symptoms were assessed using the Geriatric Depression Scale.

Around a fifth (21.4 percent; n=4,559) of the participants had depressive symptoms. Multilevel, mixed-effects Poisson regression analysis revealed that watching sports on-site a few times per year (prevalence ratio [PR], 0.80, 95 percent confidence interval [CI], 0.74–0.85; p<0.001) or 1–3 times per month (PR, 0.79, 95 percent CI, 0.64–0.97; p=0.026) could reduce the prevalence of depressive symptoms by around 20 percent.

However, on-site watching ≥1 time per week had no such effect (PR, 1.02, 95 percent CI, 0.82–1.27; p=0.873).

Notably, watching sports on the TV or over the internet seemed to have a more consistent effect. Engaging in the past-time a few times per year reduced depressive symptoms by 8 percent (PR, 0.92, 95 percent CI, 0.86–0.98; p=0.016).

This effect strengthened with increasing frequency of engagement. Those who watched sports 1–3 times per month (PR, 0.89, 95 percent CI, 0.83–0.96; p=0.001) and ≥1 time per week (PR, 0.83, 95 percent CI, 0.77–0.88; p<0.001) saw progressively greater protection against depressive symptoms.

“Watching sports may directly and indirectly, via social cohesion and networking with friends, lower risk of depressive symptoms,” the researchers said. “Distributing sports game tickets or discount coupons to older adults or enhancing sports TV and internet programmes might be an effective population-based strategy for preventing depression.”