A healthy lifestyle is positively associated with mental health and well-being and core markers in ageing

Abstract

Background Studies often evaluate mental health and well-being in association with individual health behaviours although evaluating multiple health behaviours that co-occur in real life may reveal important insights into the overall association. Also, the underlying pathways of how lifestyle might affect our health are still under debate. Here, we studied the mediation of different health behaviours or lifestyle factors on mental health and its effect on core markers of ageing: telomere length (TL) and mitochondrial DNA content (mtDNAc). Methods In this study, 6054 adults from the 2018 Belgian Health Interview Survey (BHIS) were included. Mental health and well-being outcomes included psychological and severe psychological distress, vitality, life satisfaction, self-perceived health, depressive and generalised anxiety disorder and suicidal ideation. A lifestyle score integrating diet, physical activity, smoking status, alcohol consumption and BMI was created and validated. On a subset of 739 participants, leucocyte TL and mtDNAc were assessed using qPCR. Generalised linear mixed models were used while adjusting for a priori chosen covariates. Results The average age (SD) of the study population was 49.9 (17.5) years, and 48.8% were men. A one-point increment in the lifestyle score was associated with lower odds (ranging from 0.56 to 0.74) for all studied mental health outcomes and with a 1.74% (95% CI: 0.11, 3.40%) longer TL and 4.07% (95% CI: 2.01, 6.17%) higher mtDNAc. Psychological distress and suicidal ideation were associated with a lower mtDNAc of − 4.62% (95% CI: − 8.85, − 0.20%) and − 7.83% (95% CI: − 14.77, − 0.34%), respectively. No associations were found between mental health and TL. Conclusions In this large-scale study, we showed the positive association between a healthy lifestyle and both biological ageing and different dimensions of mental health and well-being. We also indicated that living a healthy lifestyle contributes to more favourable biological ageing.

Association of habitual physical activity with depression and anxiety: a multicentre cross-sectional study

“…A large number of factors, such as overweight, gender, changes in health status, physical disabilities, chronic pain, childhood health status, lack of social contact, unhealthy lifestyle and negative event stimulation, were reported to influence the occurrence of depression and anxiety 10–12. Increasing evidence is highlighting the benefits of lifestyle modification in chronic diseases and mental health prevention 12–15. Several systematic reviews and meta-analyses have strengthened the effectiveness of physical activity or daily exercise in managing depression or anxiety 16–18.…”

Lifestyle and Violence among Dating in University Students

“…It should also be noted that there are factors such as smoking, drug and alcohol consumption, negative infuences in the social environment, and little education received about sexual relations or emotional intelligence that negatively afect an individual's lifestyle and can prompt violent behaviour. All these causes are variable since they are subject to social and personal factors that can positively or negatively infuence the life of each human being [2].…”

Combined healthy lifestyles and risk of depressive symptoms: a cross-sectional study in China

“…Because lifestyle factors often co-exist and interact with each other, it is necessary to clarify their combined impact on depression or depressive symptoms. Several studies constructed a healthy lifestyle score and found a bene cial effect of the combination of healthy lifestyles on depression in European [8][9][10][11], Australian [12], and Iranian general adults [13]. A study in French reported a protective association between combined healthy lifestyles and risk of depressive symptoms [14].…”