Swapping TV time for activity lowers risk of depression

A Dutch study of more than 65,000 adults followed for four years found that replacing 60 minutes of TV with more active pursuits was associated with an 11% lower likelihood of developing major depression, with larger reductions reported for middle-aged adults and for longer time swaps.

Dutch researchers followed more than 65,000 adults for four years to examine how replacing TV time with other daily activities related to the likelihood of developing major depression. The team analyzed specific substitutions, such as sports, leisure exercise, housework, commuting and sleep, rather than only total sedentary time. The reported results were presented as associations between time reallocations and the probability of later developing major depression. The findings were published in the journal European Psychiatry. Key findings: - The study modeled replacing TV time with other activities and found that reallocating 60 minutes of TV to other pursuits was associated with an 11% lower likelihood of developing major depression; the decrease was reported as nearly 19% in middle-aged adults. - For reallocations of 90 and 120 minutes, the reported decrease in likelihood rose to about 25.91% compared with continued TV watching. - Replacing 30 minutes of TV with sports was associated with an 18% reduction overall; leisure or work-related physical activity showed smaller reductions (about 10% for activity at work or school). - Replacing TV time with commuting or sleep was associated with modest reductions (around 8% and 9% respectively), while swapping 30 minutes for housework showed no meaningful benefit beyond a tidier home. - The researchers reported no significant benefit from reallocating TV time in younger adults, which they suggested may reflect higher baseline activity levels in that group. - Among older adults, the study reported that only sports activity produced measurable reductions in reported depression probability (examples given: a drop from 1.01% to 0.71% for a 30-minute swap, to 0.63% for 60 minutes, and to 0.56% for 90 minutes). Summary: The reported results indicate that reallocating TV-watching time to more active pursuits was associated with lower likelihood of developing major depression, with the largest reported reductions linked to sports and to middle-aged adults. Undetermined at this time.