Depression, Anxiety, Stress and Physical Activity: A Cross-Sectional Analysis of Adults

Abstract

The study aimed to examine the anxiety, depression, and stress levels of adults with different physical activity levels. The data of the study were collected through the Personal Information Form, International Physical Activity Questionnaire-Short Form (IPAQ-SF) and Depression, Anxiety, Stress Scale (DASS-21). After obtaining the necessary ethics committee approval for the study, data were collected from 55 of 81 provinces in Turkey by online method and convenient sampling. The sample of the study consisted of 488 adult individuals who filled the scales completely. Data obtained from adult individuals were analysed by using the SPSS (Statistical Package for Social Sciences) 26.0 program. Before the analyses, the assumptions required for the MANOVA test were discussed. After the necessary examinations were performed, descriptive statistics and the MANOVA test were used in the analysis of the data regarding the mean scores of the answers given by 488 adult individuals to the scales. 
 Most of the individuals participating in the study had normal scores for anxiety (70.7%), depression (64.3%) and stress (77.5%). Despite this situation, it was observed that there were individuals with severe and very advanced anxiety (11.5%), depression (12.3%) and stress (9.4%) score ranges. In terms of physical activity levels, 56.9% (n=278) of the participants were found to be inactive and minimally active. The hypothesis test results showed that the anxiety, depression and stress levels of inactive individuals were significantly higher than those in the minimally active and very active groups. As a result, it can be said that there was a strong link between physical activity and negative emotions for adults.