The influence of physical activity, social relationships, and diet intake on depression: a case-series study

This paper aims to investigate the three areas [diet, physical activity (PA), and social relationship] and their relationship with depressive disorders in the North African population. STUDY DESIGN: This is an observational cross-sectional study of 654 participants residing in the urban commune of Fez (n=326) and the rural commune of Loulja (n=328) in the province of Taounate. Participants were categorized into two groups: G1 without a current depressive episode and G2 with a current depressive episode. Risk factors, including locality, gender, marital status, age, parental status, employment status, tobacco use, alcohol consumption, social habits, and dietary patterns, were assessed. A multinomial probit model in Stata software was used to identify factors associated with depression occurrence in the population. RESULTS: A total of 94.52% of the participants who engaged in PA did not experience a depressive episode (P=0.001). Additionally, 45.39% of the participants in our series were on a processed diet and presented with a depressive disorder (P=0.0001), the social contact (time spent with friends >1.5 h) remained strongly associated with reduced depressive symptoms when comparing the two groups (P=0.001). The results showed that being rural, a smoker, an alcohol user, and having no spouse significantly increased depression in participants. The coefficient of age was negatively related to the probability of the occurrence of age-related depression; however, this factor was not significant in the model. Thus, having a spouse and/or children and spending time with friends on a healthy diet significantly decreased depression in our population. DISCUSSION: The converging evidence suggests that physical exercise, a stable social relationship, a healthy diet, and the use of PA can alleviate depression symptoms, but limited understanding and few studies have attempted to characterize or identify the neural mechanisms of these effects. CONCLUSION: Nonpharmaceutical interventions such as PA and dietary changes have proven to be effective treatments for depression, while maintaining positive social relationships can act as a protective factor, serving a prophylactic role in the prevention of depression.