In a study published in The Journal of Psychiatry, the team named social link as the strongest protective factor for depression, also suggested that reducing sedentary pursuits like TV watching and daytime napping could also help lower the risk of depression.

To this end, researchers took a two-stage strategy. The very first phase drew to a database of over 100,000 participants in the UK Biobank -- a world-renowned cohort study of adults - to systematically scan a broad range of modifiable factors that may be associated with the possibility of developing depression, such as social interaction, media use, sleep patterns, diet, physical activity, and environmental exposures. This method, called an exposure-wide institution scan (ExWAS), is analogous to genome-wide association studies (GWAS) which have been widely utilized to identify genetic risk factors for illness.

<span style="color: #ff6600;"><a style="color: #ff6600;" href="https://www.massgeneral.org/news/press-release/Study-of-more-than-100-modifiable-factors-for-depression-identifies-social-connection-as-the-strongest-protective-factor">The next stage took the strongest modifiable candidates from ExWAS and implemented a technique called Mendelian randomization (MR) to investigate which factors may have a causal relationship to depression risk.</a></span> MR is a statistical method that treats genetic difference between individuals as a sort of natural experiment to ascertain whether an association is likely to reflect causation rather than just correlation.

This two-stage approach enabled the MGH researchers to narrow the area to a more compact set of promising and potentially causal targets for melancholy. <span style="color: #ff6600;"><a style="color: #ff6600;" href="https://www.massgeneral.org/news/press-release/Study-of-more-than-100-modifiable-factors-for-depression-identifies-social-connection-as-the-strongest-protective-factor">"Far and away the most prominent of these factors was frequency of confiding in others, but also visits with family and friends, all which emphasized the important protective effect of social connection and social cohesion," points out Jordan Smoller, MD,</a> </span>ScD associate chief for research at the MGH Department of Psychiatry, and senior author of this analysis. The protective effects of social connection exist even for people who were at greater risk for depression as a result of genetic vulnerability or early life trauma.

On the flip side, factors related to depression danger included time spent viewing TV, although the authors note that further research is required to determine if that danger was due to media exposure per se or whether time in front of the TV was a proxy to be sedentary. Perhaps more surprising, the tendency for daytime napping and regular use of multivitamins appeared to be related to depression threat, though more research is required to ascertain how these might lead.

The MGH study demonstrates an important new approach for evaluating a wide assortment of modifiable factors, and using this proof to prioritize targets for preventive interventions for depression. "Depression takes a huge toll on individuals, families, and society, however we still know very little about how to prevent it," says Smoller. "We have shown that it is now possible to tackle these questions of public health significance through a large scale, data-based strategy that wasn't available even a few years back. We hope this work will motivate additional efforts to develop actionable strategies for preventing depression" The study's two-stage approach could also be used to inform the avoidance of other health ailments.
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<span style="color: #ff6600;"><a style="color: #ff6600;" href="https://www.massgeneral.org/news/press-release/Study-of-more-than-100-modifiable-factors-for-depression-identifies-social-connection-as-the-strongest-protective-factor" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Massachusetts General Hospital</a></span>

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