This article is more than 5 years old. Information may no longer be current.

Playing sports may benefit brain health of boys, girls

Involvement in sports was associated with less depression in boys and higher hippocampal volume in both boys and girls aged 9 to 11 years, according to study findings presented in a NIMH webinar.

Prior research has indicated that being active is positively associated with better mental health in children and adolescents and more active children have greater bilateral hippocampal volumes.

“Much of the evidence in the literature suggests that larger hippocampal volumes are associated with more positive cognitive attributes, doing better on cognitive tests and having better stress responsivity,” Deanna M. Barch, PhD, chair of and professor in the department of psychology & brain sciences at Washington University in St. Louis, said during the webinar. “People who have major depression consistently show reduction in hippocampal volume relative to individuals who are currently healthy.”

Barch and colleagues examined whether involvement in sports was linked to the severity of depression in children; if sports involvement predicted larger bilateral hippocampal volumes; if hippocampal volume mediated the link between sports and depression; and if there were differences between boys and girls.

The researchers used data from 4,196 children aged 9 to 11 years enrolled in the Adolescent Brain & Cognitive Development Study, an ongoing longitudinal study to identify individual developmental trajectories and factors that can impact them. They used the Child Behavior Check List, imaging data of the hippocampal and whole brain volumes as well as a sports and activities involvement questionnaire. The questionnaire measured lifetime involvement in sports, activities like music and dance and whether it was a team, individual or structured sport.

Using linear mixed models, Barch and colleagues found that greater involvement in activities (P = .004) and sports (P < .001), including team, individual and structured sports (all P < .001), were associated with less depression. These relationships were much stronger in boys than girls; only involvement in team sports predicted depressive symptoms in girls, according to the presentation.

In addition, Barch reported that higher levels of depression were associated with smaller hippocampal volumes and there was an interaction with sex indicating that this relationship was significant in boys, not in girls. Many forms of sports and activities were also associated with larger hippocampal volume, particularly for involvement in team and structured sports (both P = .002) in both boys and girls.

Based on the findings from the mediation analysis, Barch said that hippocampal volume partially mediated the direct relationship between being involved in team sports and having fewer depressive symptoms in boys.

“These were associations and they can’t tell us about causal directions. We need to determine causal directions because we don’t want to be making recommendations about what kinds of things kids should be involved in without evidence of causal relationships,” she said. “Should we get more evidence for causal relationships, one could then think about potential intervention studies and I think it has a number of public health implications should we find evidence that involvement in sports causally has an influence on depression.” – by Savannah Demko

References:

Barch DM. National Institute of Mental Health. Let’s play ball: How sex and gender effects influence sports involvement, hippocampal volume, and depressive symptoms in children.

Disclosure: Healio Psychiatry was unable to confirm any relevant financial disclosures at the time of publication.