Prospective associations between sedentary behaviour and risk of depression in socio-economically disadvantaged women

• Prospective associations between sedentary behaviours and depressive symptoms were examined in both directions.
• Sedentary behaviour was not found to be predictive of subsequent depressive symptoms.
• Depressive symptoms were predictive of subsequent television viewing but not of other sedentary behaviours.

ObjectiveAlthough recent cross-sectional research has suggested a positive association between sedentary behaviour and risk of depression, the direction of associations is unclear. This study aimed to investigate prospective associations between sedentary behaviour and risk of depression in both directions in socio-economically disadvantaged women.Methods1511 women, aged 18–45, completed self-report validated measures of sedentary behaviour (TV viewing, computer use, overall sitting time and screen time) as well as depressive symptoms (CES-D-10) in 2007/08 (T1) and 2010/11 (T2). Linear regression analyses examined associations between sedentary behaviours at T1 and depressive symptoms at T2, and multinomial logistic regression analyses examined associations between depressive symptoms at T1 and sedentary behaviours at T2.ResultsAlthough prospective analyses indicated no association between T1 sedentary behaviours and depressive symptoms at T2, results showed that depressive symptoms at T1 were associated with higher levels of TV viewing (adjusted odds ratio: 1.032, 95% CI: 1.00, 1.07) at T2.ConclusionsWomen's sedentary behaviour may not predict subsequent depressive symptoms; however, women's risk of depression may be predictive of engaging in greater amounts of TV viewing. Confirmation of these findings using further prospective and intervention study designs is required.