Depression and physical activity research in older age: An important gap to fill

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Why this topic?

Accumulating evidence supports the benefits of physical activity in older adults with depressive symptoms. Yet older adults with depressive symptoms do not participate in recommended levels of physical activity and are less physically active compared with their peers without depression. No matter how beneficial participating in physical activity may be, older adults with depressive symptoms often lack the motivation to engage in behaviour change, so addressing common barriers would be the first

Background

Worldwide, depression is one of the most common psychiatric disorders across the lifespan and is the fourth leading cause of disability-adjusted life years lost (Braithwaite, O'Connor, Degli-Esposti, Luke, & Bowes, 2017). In later life, depression is also common, affecting over 10%–20% of adults aged 65 years and older in developed countries (Hansen & Slagsvold, 2017; Kok & Reynolds, 2017; McCall & Kintziger, 2013). Depression in older age significantly affects older adults’ health-related

Gaps in the literature and the reasons

Understanding the barriers and enablers of physical activity in older adults is of critical importance when promoting physical activity in this group. While literature reviews and meta-analyses have examined enablers and barriers to participation in physical activity among younger adults with depressive symptoms (Glowacki, Duncan, Gainforth, & Faulkner, 2017), healthy older adults (Franco et al., 2015) and older adults with other health conditions, such as risk of falls (Boehm et al., 2013) and

Future research directions

There is a pressing need to conduct more implementation research, including examining barriers and enablers, in the research field of physical activity and depression in older age, in order to help close the current knowledge-practice and knowledge-policy gaps. Research into this topic for this specific population will be essential to allow clinicians and consumers to more effectively include physical activity into personalised management plans. The required research will need to be recognised

Declaration of interest

None.

Acknowledgements

This paper was supported by the Centre of Research Excellence in Cognitive Health (1100579) from the Australian National Health and Medical Research Council.

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