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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Public Health
Sec. Aging and Public Health
Volume 13 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2025.1511509
This article is part of the Research Topic Exercising body & brain: the effects of physical exercise on brain health View all 3 articles

The mediating role of life satisfaction in the relationship between physical exercise and depressive symptoms among middle-aged and elderly individuals

Provisionally accepted
Ting Yang Ting Yang Xinxin Li Xinxin Li *Xinyu Wang Xinyu Wang *Jingjie Zhou Jingjie Zhou *Wei Chen Wei Chen *
  • The Affiliated Xuzhou Rehabilitation Hospital of Xuzhou Medical University, Xuzhou Medical University, Xuzhou, China

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Objective: To investigate the mediating effect of life satisfaction between physical exercise behavior and depressive symptoms among middle-aged and elderly individuals, providing a reference for improving depressive conditions in this demographic group.Methods: Data from 11,101 middle-aged and elderly individuals from the 2020 China Family Panel Studies (CFPS) were collected. STATA 17.0 was used for data cleaning, organization, and statistical analysis which includes univariate analysis, stepwise regression analysis, and mediation effect testing.Results: Among 11,101 individuals aged 45 years and above, 1,762 participated in physical exercise, accounting for 19.96%; 2,052 exhibited depressive symptoms, representing 18.48%. Physical exercise was positively correlated with life satisfaction and negatively correlated with depression.Depression scores also showed a negative correlation with life satisfaction. According to the results of the mediation effect study, life satisfaction accounted for 16.70% of the overall effect and had a mediating effect value of -0.098 on depression symptoms.Physical exercise and life satisfaction are factors influencing depressive symptoms, and life satisfaction acts as a partial mediator between physical exercise participation and depression among middle-aged and elderly adults.

    Keywords: physical exercise, life satisfaction, Depression, Mediating effect, Chinese

    Received: 15 Oct 2024; Accepted: 27 Jan 2025.

    Copyright: © 2025 Yang, Li, Wang, Zhou and Chen. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence:
    Xinxin Li, The Affiliated Xuzhou Rehabilitation Hospital of Xuzhou Medical University, Xuzhou Medical University, Xuzhou, China
    Xinyu Wang, The Affiliated Xuzhou Rehabilitation Hospital of Xuzhou Medical University, Xuzhou Medical University, Xuzhou, China
    Jingjie Zhou, The Affiliated Xuzhou Rehabilitation Hospital of Xuzhou Medical University, Xuzhou Medical University, Xuzhou, China
    Wei Chen, The Affiliated Xuzhou Rehabilitation Hospital of Xuzhou Medical University, Xuzhou Medical University, Xuzhou, China

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