Research Article: Associations of exercise frequency, exercise session duration, and sleep duration with depressive symptoms among Chinese adolescents: a complex-survey cross-sectional analysis of CFPS2022
Abstract:
Exercise and sleep are modifiable behaviors related to adolescent mental health, but the relevance of specific exercise-frequency categories, participant session duration, and nonlinear sleep duration remains uncertain.
We analyzed 2,861 adolescents aged 10–19 years from the 2022 China Family Panel Studies. Survey-weighted regression incorporated individual weights, strata, and primary sampling units. Exercise frequency, any exercise participation, participant session duration, and spline-modeled sleep duration were examined in separate models with continuous eight-item Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale (CES-D8) scores as the primary outcome.
CES-D8 scores differed across exercise-frequency categories ( p =?0.002), but the pattern was not monotonic. The largest adjusted difference was observed for once-daily exercise vs. never exercising ( B =??1.08; 95% CI, ?1.62 to ?0.53). Any exercise participation was associated with a modestly lower score ( B =??0.57; 95% CI, ?1.01 to ?0.12), whereas session duration among 2,167 exercise participants was not associated with CES-D8 scores ( B per 30?min?=?0.004; 95% CI, ?0.16–0.17). Sleep duration was nonlinearly associated with CES-D8 scores (overall p <?0.001; nonlinearity p =?0.004); relative to 8?h, scores were higher at 6?h ( B =?1.03; 95% CI, 0.55–1.51) and 7?h ( B =?0.53; 95% CI, 0.30–0.76). Sensitivity analyses were broadly consistent, and multiple-imputation estimates for exercise participation, exercise-frequency contrasts, and sleep-duration contrasts were similar to the complete-case estimates.
Exercise frequency and sleep duration were modestly associated with depressive-symptom scores, whereas participant session duration showed no clear association. The cross-sectional findings do not establish causality or support a specific exercise prescription.
Introduction:
Exercise and sleep are modifiable behaviors related to adolescent mental health, but the relevance of specific exercise-frequency categories, participant session duration, and nonlinear sleep duration remains uncertain.
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