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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Public Health
Sec. Children and Health
Volume 12 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2024.1506432

Increased physical activity frequency in primary school adolescents is related to reduced risk of self-reported adverse mental health symptoms

Provisionally accepted
Chunmei Li Chunmei Li 1Xiong-Zhe Han Xiong-Zhe Han 2*
  • 1 School of Mathematics and Computer Science, Jilin Normal University, Siping, China
  • 2 Department of Physical Education, College of Education, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, China

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    The sedentary lifestyle and mental health issues of primary school students are major public health issues in China and globally. Some studies have shown that regular physical activity is beneficial to health, but there are few epidemiological investigations on the relationship between physical activity and psychological problems. The purpose of this study is to explore the relationship between physical activity and mental health.We used data from our study, which was based on the Yanbian University School of Physical Education health survey of primary education, in which 822 elementary school students in grades 4-6 participated. Physical activity is evaluated through three questions (intensity, frequency, and duration), and mental health issues are evaluated through SPSS.Results: In our study, 488 primary school students (200 males and 288 females) participated and completed self-reported data on physical activity and mental health variables. The findings revealed that a higher frequency of physical activity was significantly associated with decreased risks of various mental health symptoms. Specifically, students who reported a higher frequency of physical activity exhibited a lower risk of depressive symptoms (RR=0.31, 95% CI=0.14-0.71, p<0.05), anxiety (RR=0.35, 95% CI=0.18-0.67, p<0.05), low self-esteem (RR=0.48, 95% CI=0.26-0.90, p<0.05), and life dissatisfaction (RR=0.58, 95% CI=0.35-0.96, p<0.05).The risk of somatic complaints reporting was slightly lesser if the prevalence of physical activity reported at screening was higher (RR=0.93, 95% CI=0.50-1.76), although this result was not statistically significant (p>0.05). These findings highlight the importance of regular physical activity in promoting mental health among primary school students.Conclusions:Given the dose-response relationship between poor mental health and lack of physical activity, it is necessary to actively promote primary school students to participate more actively in physical activities.

    Keywords: adolescents, physical activity, psychological health, adverse mental health symptoms, risk factor

    Received: 05 Oct 2024; Accepted: 26 Nov 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Li and Han. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Xiong-Zhe Han, Department of Physical Education, College of Education, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, China

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.