Physical Activity, Sitting Time, And Perceived Stress Among University Employees

Physical activity improves the risk of chronic health conditions and the ability to cope with stress. Likewise, sitting time has been associated with many negative health outcomes. PURPOSE: The purpose of this project was to study the relationship between the volume of physical activity, sitting time, and perceived stress among university employees. METHODS: Employees of a regional metropolitan university (n = 85, 72.9% female, 87.1% white) completed the International Physical Activity Questionnaire (IPAQ), the Perceived Stress Scale (PSS), and demographic questions. The IPAQ gives a measure of weekly volume of vigorous-intensity physical activity (VPA), moderate-intensity physical activity (MPA), walking physical activity (WPA), total physical activity (TPA; the sum of VPA, MPA and WPA), and daily sit time (SIT). The PSS is a validated instrument for assessing perceived stress that includes 10 items with a range of scores from 0-40. The demographic questionnaire included a question about weekly participation in muscular strengthening activities (MS). Pearson correlation coefficients were conducted to analyze the relationships between physical activity variables, MS, SIT, and PSS. The results were further analyzed by calculating a categorical variable of physical activity from the IPAQ scores to create three groups: Low Active (< 600 METmin/wk; n = 12), Moderately Active (600-2,999 METmin/wk; n = 44), and Highly Active (> 3,000 METmin/wk; n = 29). One-Way ANOVA was used to determine if PSS, SIT, and MS were different between the physical activity groups. RESULTS: The mean PSS score was 16.26 ± 7.30. The mean values for physical activity were 1,069.65 ± 1,449.35 for VPA, 698.47 ± 1,036.17 for MPA, 977.54 ± 1,219.47 for WPA, and 2,745.66 ± 2,561.01 for TPA. Mean SIT was 7.17 ± 2.76 hours and mean MS was 1.29 ± 1.57 days. PSS was correlated with SIT (r = .230, p < .05). SIT was correlated with VPA (r = -.231; p < .05), MPA (r = -.239, p < .05), and TPA (r = -.335, p < .05). MS was correlated with VPA (r = .241, p < .05) only. When PSS, SIT, and MS were examined by physical activity groups, no significant differences were found. CONCLUSIONS: The results from this study indicate that while perceived stress was not correlated with volume of physical activity as assessed by the IPAQ, it is directly correlated with daily sitting time. Supported by: Supported by the University of Central Oklahoma Office of High Impact Practices