Depressive symptoms in Chinese adolescents: the role of health-related physical fitness
Abstract
Background: Higher levels of cardiorespiratory fitness (CRF) in adolescents may ameliorate depressive symptoms. However, the association between depressive symptoms and the overall health-related physical fitness (HPF) remains unclear. The current investigation aimed to explore the association between HPF and depressive symptoms among adolescents.
Methods: From August 2021 to April 2022, a total of 10,327 Chinese adolescents aged 12–17 years in Shanghai, Kunming, Urumqi, Suzhou, and Changsha were selected for the investigation of HPF and depressive symptoms. The HPF test comprised measurements of height, weight, standing long jump, 30-s Sit-ups, 20-meter shuttle run test (20 m SRT) and sit-and-reach. Depressive symptoms were evaluated using the Center for Epidemiological Studies Depression Scale (CES-D). Kruskal-wallis H test, T test, Chi-square test and binary logistic regression analysis were used to analyze the data.
Results: The prevalence of depressive symptoms in adolescents was 28.6% (24.2% for boys, 33.1% for girls). After adjusting for covariates, the prevalence of depressive symptoms in the lowest grade group of HPF-Z was 1.41 ( OR = 1.244 ~ 1.602, P <0.001) times higher than that in the highest grade group. Meanwhile, the prevalence of depressive symptoms in the lowest grade group of standing long jump, 30s sit-ups, 20 m SRT and Sit-and-reach were 1.35 ( OR = 1.191ཞ1.539, P <0.001) times, 1.25 ( OR = 1.097ཞ1.420, P = 0.001) times, 1.25 ( OR = 1.100ཞ1.430, P = 0.001) times and 1.18 ( OR = 1.032ཞ1.337, P = 0.015) times higher than those in the highest grade group. The prevalence of depressive symptoms of the normal weight group were 0.85 ( OR = 0.734ཞ0.983, P = 0.001) times lower than those in the obesity group.The prevalence of depressive symptoms decreased with the decrease of body mass index (BMI) ( P trend =0.009) and the increase of standing long jump ( P trend <0.001), 30s sit-ups ( P trend =0.001), 20 m SRT ( P trend =0.001), Sit-and-reach ( P trend =0.007).
Conclusion: Results indicated that BMI had a positive predictive effect on depressive symptoms in adolescents, whereas HPF - Z and other HPF items negatively predicted depressive symptoms.
Related
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BibTeX
@article{zhang2026depressive,
title = {{Depressive symptoms in Chinese adolescents: the role of health-related physical fitness}},
author = {Ting Zhang and YaRu Guo and Ming Li and Yuan Liu and PengWei Sun and Xiaojian Yin and Feng Zhang},
journal = {BMC Public Health},
year = {2026},
month = oct,
doi = {10.1186/s12889-026-29840-6},
url = {https://link.springer.com/10.1186/s12889-026-29840-6},
note = {CC BY 4.0},
}
RIS
TY - JOUR
TI - Depressive symptoms in Chinese adolescents: the role of health-related physical fitness
AU - Ting Zhang
AU - YaRu Guo
AU - Ming Li
AU - Yuan Liu
AU - PengWei Sun
AU - Xiaojian Yin
AU - Feng Zhang
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/10/12
JO - BMC Public Health
DO - 10.1186/s12889-026-29840-6
UR - https://link.springer.com/10.1186/s12889-026-29840-6
AB - Background: Higher levels of cardiorespiratory fitness (CRF) in adolescents may ameliorate depressive symptoms. However, the association between depressive symptoms and the overall health-related physical fitness (HPF) remains unclear. The current investigation aimed to explore the association between HPF and depressive symptoms among adolescents. Methods: From August 2021 to April 2022, a total of 10,327 Chinese adolescents aged 12–17 years in Shanghai, Kunming, Urumqi, Suzhou, and Changsha were selected for the investigation of HPF and depressive symptoms. The HPF test comprised measurements of height, weight, standing long jump, 30-s Sit-ups, 20-meter shuttle run test (20 m SRT) and sit-and-reach. Depressive symptoms were evaluated using the Center for Epidemiological Studies Depression Scale (CES-D). Kruskal-wallis H test, T test, Chi-square test and binary logistic regression analysis were used to analyze the data. Results: The prevalence of depressive symptoms in adolescents was 28.6% (24.2% for boys, 33.1% for girls). After adjusting for covariates, the prevalence of depressive symptoms in the lowest grade group of HPF-Z was 1.41 ( OR = 1.244 ~ 1.602, P <0.001) times higher than that in the highest grade group. Meanwhile, the prevalence of depressive symptoms in the lowest grade group of standing long jump, 30s sit-ups, 20 m SRT and Sit-and-reach were 1.35 ( OR = 1.191ཞ1.539, P <0.001) times, 1.25 ( OR = 1.097ཞ1.420, P = 0.001) times, 1.25 ( OR = 1.100ཞ1.430, P = 0.001) times and 1.18 ( OR = 1.032ཞ1.337, P = 0.015) times higher than those in the highest grade group. The prevalence of depressive symptoms of the normal weight group were 0.85 ( OR = 0.734ཞ0.983, P = 0.001) times lower than those in the obesity group.The prevalence of depressive symptoms decreased with the decrease of body mass index (BMI) ( P trend =0.009) and the increase of standing long jump ( P trend <0.001), 30s sit-ups ( P trend =0.001), 20 m SRT ( P trend =0.001), Sit-and-reach ( P trend =0.007). Conclusion: Results indicated that BMI had a positive predictive effect on depressive symptoms in adolescents, whereas HPF - Z and other HPF items negatively predicted depressive symptoms.
SN - 1471-2458
ER -