MAINTAINING a healthy lifestyle has long been associated with physical well-being, and recent research has affirmed that this also applies to mental health.

Seven healthy lifestyle factors, which include moderate alcohol consumption, healthy diet, regular physical activity, adequate sleep, abstaining from smoking, limited sedentary behavior and frequent social connections, are linked with a lower risk of depression, according to the findings of the research recently published in the journal Nature Mental Health.

It was jointly conducted by an international team of researchers from multiple institutes including China’s Fudan University and the University of Cambridge in Britain.

The team identified the seven healthy lifestyle factors by analyzing data collected from nearly 290,000 individuals from the U.K. Biobank, a large-scale biomedical database and research resource.

According to the research findings, among the seven factors, getting seven to nine hours of sleep a night has the most significant impact, lowering the risk of depression by 22%.

It is closely followed by abstaining from smoking, which reduces the risk by 20%; maintaining frequent social connections reduces the risk by 18%, engaging in regular physical activity by 14%. (Xinhua)