Depression is the most common behavioral disorder worldwide, especially in women, and there is an inverse relationship between symptoms and cardiorespiratory fitness. Women with depression are at risk for low CRF, increased chances of cardiovascular disease, and premature death.

To identify the presence of depression symptoms in female university workers and to verify whether the maximum consumption of O2 (VO2 max) is a predictor of depression symptoms in women.

This is a cross-sectional observational study involving workers from two higher education institutions located in two Brazilian states with homogeneous characteristics such as age, position, and weekly workload. A total of 223 women between 18 and 59 years old participated in the survey, recruited for convenience and who had been employed for at least six months. Those who did not complete all stages of the research were excluded a, and the sample consisted of05 women. To identify the presence of depression symptoms, the Beck inventory was used and, and to assess cardiorespiratory fitness, the Shuttle Run test was used normality was tested by Kolmogorov-Smirnov. The Mann-Whitney test was used to compare the groups of women with and without symptoms of depression and the effect size was classified according to Cohen f2. The Chi-square test examined the association between the presence of depression symptoms and the cardiorespiratory fitness rating; linear regression verified whether cardiorespiratory fitness (VO2max) was a predictor of depression scores, being adjusted according to age and climacteric. The p-value considered for the tests was < 0.05.

Regarding the evaluated women, 27.83% (n=59) had symptoms of depression. VO2max was lower (p=0.009, f2= 0.18) in the group of women with symptoms [25.93 (2.18) mL/kg/min] when compared to those without symptoms [(26.97 (2.60)) mL/kg/min]. The highest proportion of women had VO2max below the predicted value (n=53, 89.80%, p=0.011). VO2max was a predictor of depression symptom scores [β= -0.671 (95%CI = -1150/ -0.191), p=0.006).

Women with depressive symptoms had lower VO2max and identified it as a predictor of depression symptoms in women.

Frequently assess symptoms of depression and cardiorespiratory fitness to estimate early depressive symptoms and deficits in maximum oxygen consumption, with the aim of preventing and minimizing damage to the cardiovascular health of workers. In addition to promoting psychological follow-up and the regular and guided practice of physical exercises to improve health-related quality of life.