The purpose of this study was to clarify the relationship between depressive tendency and life function by early and late stage of aging among male elderly people living in the community (348 persons) who participated in the physical fitness test. The early-stage male elderly were classified into two groups: the depressive tendency group (32 persons) and the non-depressive tendency group (93 persons), and each measurement was compared. The results showed that the depressive group had significantly lower exercise time, eye gaze time, mobility function, attention function, and Instrumental Activities of Daily Living (IADL) ability than the non-depressive group. The late-life elderly were classified into a depressive group (58 persons) and a non-depressive group (165 persons), and each measurement was compared. The results showed that the depressed group had significantly lower exercise time, muscle mass, body fat percentage, skeletal muscle index, mobility function, and IADL ability than the non-depressed group.
The results suggest the need for health guidance that takes into account exercise time, mobility function, and IADL ability in depressed male elderly across age groups, eye-gaze time and attention function in the early elderly, and muscle mass, body fat percentage, and skeletal muscle index in the late elderly.
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