Association Of Physical Activity Level,Physical Exercise Willingness And Context With Negative Emotional Symptoms Among College Students

Objective The aim of this paper is to analyze the association of physical activity(PA)level,physical exercise willingness and context with negative emotional symptoms among college students and gender differences.Methods From November to December 2021,a baseline survey(T1)was conducted among freshmen from 3 junior colleges in Anhui Province,and 8724 valid questionnaires were collected.A follow-up survey(T2)was conducted from May to June 2022,with a total of 8050 people completing both the baseline and follow-up surveys.The International Physical Activity Questionnaire Short Form(IPAQ-SF),the self-compiled physical exercise items and the Depression Anxiety and Stress Scale-21(DASS-21)were used to evaluate the PA level,physical exercise willingness,context and negative emotional symptoms of college students,respectively.Adjusting for factors such as gender,family residence,only child status,parents’ education level and other factors,logistic regression model was conducted to analyze the correlation between PA level,physical exercise willingness,context and negative emotional symptoms among college students and their gender differences. The prevalence rates of depressive,anxiety,and stress symptoms among college students at baseline were 19.95%,27.78%,and 8.80%,respectively,and 23.69%,29.54%,and 6.68% at follow-up.In the general population,students with baseline depressive symptoms deleted and confounding factors controlled for,college students engaging in moderate-and high-intensity PA was associated with a reduced risk of new-onset depressive symptoms compared to low-intensity PA(OR=0.80,95%CI:0.67-0.95;OR=0.70,95% CI: 0.58-0.84);compared to not engaging in physical exercise,college students actively participation in physical exercise was associated with a reduced risk of new-onset depressive symptoms(OR=0.74,95%CI: 0.61-0.89),and participation in pairs of physical exercise in college students was associated with a lower risk of new-onset depressive symptoms(OR=0.76,95% CI: 0.59-0.98).After removing students with baseline anxiety symptoms while controlling for confounding factors,compared with low-intensity PA,college students engaging in moderate-and high-intensity PA was associated with a reduced risk of new-onset anxiety symptoms(OR=0.77,95%CI: 0.65-0.92;OR=0.75,95%CI: 0.62-0.90);compared to not engaging in physical exercise,active participation in physical exercise was associated with reduced risk of new-onset anxiety symptoms(OR=0.76,95%CI: 0.63-0.92),and participation in pairs of physical exercise in college students was associated with a reduced risk of new-onset anxiety symptoms(OR=0.74,95%CI: 0.58-0.95).After removing students with baseline stress symptoms while controlling for confounding factors,the associations of PA levels,physical exercise willingness,and context with new-onset stress symptoms were not statistically significant.Gender stratification showed that in boys with baseline depressive symptoms deleted and confounding factors controlled,moderate-and high-intensity PA was associated with a reduced risk of new-onset depressive symptoms compared with low-intensity PA(OR=0.71,95%CI: 0.52-0.96;OR=0.66,95%CI: 0.49-0.88),while baseline high-intensity PA was associated with a reduced risk of new-onset depressive symptoms in girls(OR=0.72,95%CI: 0.56-0.92).Compared to not engaging in physicalResults exercise,active participation in physical exercise and participation in pairs of physical exercise were associated with a reduced risk of new-onset depressive symptoms only in girls(OR=0.71,95%CI: 0.56-0.90;OR=0.75,95%CI: 0.59-0.96).After removing students with baseline anxiety symptoms while controlling for confounding factors,only boys with moderate-and high-intensity PA were associated with a reduced risk of new-onset anxiety symptoms compared with low-intensity PA(OR=0.63,95%CI:0.46-0.85;OR=0.65,95%CI: 0.49-0.88);active participation in physical exercise and participation in pairs of physical exercise were associated with a reduced risk of new-onset anxiety symptoms only in girls compared with no physical exercise(OR=0.71,95%CI: 0.56-0.90;OR=0.73,95%CI: 0.54-0.99).After removing students with baseline stress symptoms while controlling for confounding factors,moderate-intensity PA in boys was associated with a reduced risk of new-onset stress symptoms compared with low-intensity PA(OR=0.56,95%CI: 0.34-0.92).Participation in pairs of physical exercise was associated with a reduced risk of new-onset stress symptoms only in boys compared with no physical exercise(OR=0.35,95%CI:0.16-0.79).Conclusions PA levels,physical exercise willingness and context were associated with negative emotional symptoms among college students,and there was a certain gender difference.Encouraging college students to engage in moderate PA,active participation in physical exercise and team sports is beneficial to the prevention and control of negative emotional symptoms.