Association between physical activity levels and anxiety or depression among college students in China during the COVID-19 pandemic: A meta-analysis

Abstract

Background: This meta-analysis aimed to investigate the links between the level of physical activity and the risk of anxiety or depression among college students in China during the Coronavirus Disease 2019 pandemic. Methods: Eligible studies were searched from the PubMed, Embase, and Web of Science databases. The associations between them were assessed with odd ratio (OR) and 95% confidence interval (CI). The heterogeneity of the included studies was evaluated and subgroup analysis was performed. Sensitivity analysis was executed using leave-one-out method. Publication bias of included studies was evaluated. Ten studies with moderate quality were included. Results: Physical activity levels of college students were associated with reduced risk of depression (OR [95%CI] = 0.69 [0.58, 0.82], P < .001) and anxiety (OR [95%CI] = 0.71 [0.62, 0.80], P < .001). The measurement scale of depression or anxiety and whether multi-factor correction was performed or not did not influence the pooled results. The pooled results of depression and anxiety were stable and were not significantly influenced by a single study. No publication bias was observed in the included studies reporting depression and anxiety. Conclusion: The physical activity level of college students is negatively correlated with anxiety and depression in China during the pandemic. During the Coronavirus Disease 2019 pandemic, it is necessary to strengthen the construction of university physical education courses. As an organized form of physical activity, physical education classes are a necessary and effective way to increase physical activity among college students.

An investigative study of anxiety, depression and sleep quality in college students after the COVID-19 pandemic - the moderating effect of physical activity

“…The correlations between exercise frequency and college students' anxiety, depression, and sleep quality were -0.798, -0.885, and -0.891, respectively, with p<0.001, indicating that the frequency of exercise showed a significant negative correlation with anxiety, depression, and sleep quality, which is consistent with many studies (Yang et al, 2023). From the viewpoint of psychological factors, the reason why exercise frequency can affect anxiety, depression and sleep quality of college students, there exist the mediating variables of external exercise motivation (Takagaki & Yokoyama, 2023) and subjective exercise experience (Zdravkovic & Goldstein, 2023), and external exercise motivation is significantly and positively correlated with exercise frequency, and higher exercise frequency can build up the external motivation (Lee et al, 2023), which can reduce the depressed mood (Luo et al, 2023).…”