JMIR Publications

ABSTRACT

Background:

Mental health is an emerging topic at university campuses with students reporting higher levels of psychological distress than the general population of the same age. Increasing physical activity and reducing sedentary time have been proved promising measures to promote mental health in the general population. However, in order to derive and implement effective measures to promote mental health among university students, further exploration of the associations between physical activity, sedentary time, and perceived stress in this specific setting is needed.

Objective:

This study aims to identify associations between physical activity, sedentary time, and perceived stress after controlling for sociodemographic and behavioral variables among university students in Germany. We hypothesize that perceived stress is inversely related to physical activity and positively associated with sedentary time, that combined associations of concurrently high physical activity and low sedentary time on perceived stress are stronger compared to either alone, and that the association between physical activity and perceived stress depends on activity intensity.

Methods:

We conducted cross-sectional analyses from a large-scale internet-based student health survey (N = 4,189; response rate = 10%). Physical activity, sedentary time, and engaging in moderate and vigorous activity intensities were assessed using the International Physical Activity Questionnaire Short Form with categorization into low, intermediate, and high levels. We measured perceived stress using the 10-item perceived stress scale (PSS, range 0-40).

Results:

The results indicate that higher physical activity and lower sedentary time are associated with reduced levels of perceived stress. Following adjustment for gender, body mass index, income, fruit-vegetable intake, alcohol consumption, and sleep quality, perceived stress scores were lower for students reporting high physical activity levels and low sedentary time compared with the least active and highly sedentary students (PSS -2.2, 95% confidence interval (CI95%): -2.9 to -1.5, P<.001 for physical activity, and PSS -1.1, CI95%: -1.7 to -0.5, P<.001 for sedentary time). Combined associations with perceived stress revealed that students concurrently reporting high total physical activity and low sedentary time reported the lowest perceived stress scores of all possible combinations following adjustment for confounders (PSS -3.5, CI95%: -4.6 to -2.5, P<.001; compared to students reporting low physical activity levels and concurrently high sedentary time). Associations between vigorous physical activities and perceived stress were not stronger compared with moderate activity intensities.

Conclusions:

Self-reported physical activity and low sedentary time are favorably associated with perceived stress, while the intensity of physical activities seems to be of minor importance. The present results help to effectively implement health-promoting measures at the campus among university students through increasing physical activity and reducing sedentary time.