ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Psychiatry
Sec. Aging Psychiatry
This article is part of the Research TopicInteractions of Environment and Exercise on Geriatric HealthView all 6 articles
Association Between 24-Hour Movement Behaviors and Depressive Symptoms Among Urban Older Adults in China: A Compositional Isotemporal Substitution Analysis
Provisionally accepted
- 1Shandong Jianzhu University, Jinan, China
- 2Jacksonville State University, Jacksonville, United States
- 3Tsinghua University, Beijing, China
- 4Shandong Sport University, Jinan, China
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Objective: To examine the association between 24-hour movement behaviors and depressive symptoms in older adults using compositional data analysis, and to investigate the dose-response characteristics of time reallocations between movement behaviors in relation to depressive symptoms. Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted among 1093 urban-dwelling older adults aged 60 years and above in selected communities of Jinan City, Shandong Province, China, between April 2024 and September 2024. The Chinese version of the International Physical Activity Questionnaire-Long Form was used to estimate time spent in moderate to vigorous-intensity physical activity (MVPA), light-intensity physical activity (LPA), sedentary behavior (SB), and sleep (SLP) across a typical 24-hour day. The Chinese version of the Patient Health Questionnaire Depression Scale-9 item was applied to assess depressive symptoms. Compositional isotemporal substitution models were employed to explore the associations between time reallocations among 24-hour movement behaviors and depressive symptoms, accounting for the co-dependent nature of time-use data. Results: (1) The geometric means of time spent in MVPA, LPA, SB, and SLP were 25.33 minutes, 141.26 minutes, 738.10 minutes, and 455.15 minutes, respectively. Variation matrix analysis revealed the highest log-ratio variance between MVPA and SB (0.168), and the lowest between SLP and SB (0.031). (2) The prevalence of screening-positive depressive symptoms was 16.29 % among Chinese urban older adults. (3) Results from compositional linear regression models showed that time allocated to MVPA, LPA, and SLP (relative to the remaining movement behaviors) was negatively associated with depressive symptoms, while time spent in SB was positively associated. (4) Dose-response analysis further indicated that: (a) MVPA substitutions with other movement behaviors exhibited nonlinear and markedly asymmetric effects on depressive symptoms; (b) replacing MVPA with LPA, SB, or SLP resulted in increasingly larger changes in predicted scores as substitution duration increased, whereas the reverse substitution produced progressively smaller changes; and (c) substitutions between SB and LPA displayed linear and symmetrical effects. Conclusions: The findings provide evidence of an association between 24-hour movement behaviors and depressive symptoms in Chinese urban-dwelling older adults and reinforce the importance of achieving a balance between different types of movement behaviors over a 24-hour period for mental health.
Keywords: 24-hour movement behaviors, Time-use epidemiology, Depression, compositional, isotemporal substitution, older adults, Health Promotion
Received: 16 Sep 2025; Accepted: 12 Nov 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Ji, Roswal, Liu, Liu and Yuan. 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: Yang Liu, liuyang19@sdjzu.edu.cn
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