Exploring the Relationship between Physical Activity Patterns and the Prevalence and Severity of Anxiety

Abstract

Objective: To measure/explore the relationship between physical activity patterns and the prevalence and severity of anxiety.
Methodology: This analytic cross-sectional study was conducted at Bahria University of Health Sciences, Karachi from 1/07/2024 to 31/12/2024. Using non-probability consecutive sampling, 136 participants between the ages of 20-23 vol-untarily participated in this study. The participants were medical students of either gender, studying at Bahria University of Health Sciences, Karachi. To quantify anxiety, the Generalized Anxiety Disorder-7 (GAD-7) scale was utilized, and to measure physical activity, the Global Physical Activity Questionnaire (GPAQ) was utilized. SPSS-26 version was utilized for data analysis. P-value ≤ 0.05 was taken as statistically significant after correlation and stratification analyses.
Results: The mean age of participants was 20.75 ± 0.82 years and mean BMI was 25.38 ± 6.77 kg/m². The mean physi-cal activity among the participants was 2939.71 ± 2167.54 MET-minutes/week, while the mean GAD-7 score was 9.21 ± 4.97. Moderate anxiety was the commonest type 52(38.2%), followed by minimum 34(25.0%), mild 27(19.9%), and se-vere 23(16.9%). The physical activity of participants was of low among 36(26.5%), moderate 34(25.0%) and high 66(48.5%) levels. Physical activity and anxiety were shown to be strongly correlated negatively (r = -0.898, p < 0.001). Stronger associations were seen in females (r = -0.922) and overweight persons (r = -0.952).
Conclusion: Increased physical activity is a preventive, non-pharmacological strategy for reducing anxiety in adults, as evidenced by its high correlation with decreased anxiety levels.
Keywords: Anxiety; Body Mass Index; Exercise; Generalized Anxiety Disorder-7; Physical Activity; Psychological Well-being; Sedentary Behavior.