Association between Sedentary Behaviour and Depression, Stress and Anxiety among Medical School Students in Chennai, India

Introduction: Physical inactivity has been found to be a major contributing factor for occurrence of non-communicable diseases like cardio vascular diseases, type 2 diabetes, dyslipidemia and also certain mental illnesses. With the higher prevalence of sedentary behaviour among medical students in India, the researches on sedentary behaviour related to mental illness (depression, anxiety, self-esteem, psychological stress, and quality of life) have become the focus considering the medical students role in future physicians and public health intervention programme. The prevalence and association of sedentary behaviour and certain mental illnesses has been explored in this study. Aim: To find the prevalence of physical inactivity among medical school students and its association with anxiety, stress and depression. Materials and Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted among medical students of Tagore Medical College, Chennai, Tamilnadu. Total 507 medical school students who were >18 years of age from all academic years (First year MBBS to Fourth year MBBS) students were included. A pretested, structured study tool was used which comprised of five sections-Socio-demographic profile, International physical activity questionnaire, Perceived Stress Scale, Generalised Anxiety Disorder-7 and Beck Depression Inventory. Data was analysed with SPSS-IBM software version 21. Prevalence of physical inactivity was measured in proportions. Chi-square test and Mann Whitney test was applied. A p-value of <0.05 was considered significant. Results: Among the study participants, 73% and 53.5% had moderate and severe intense activity, respectively. Out of 507 study participants, 21.5% were sedentary. Significant association was found between depression and sedentary behaviour. (p-value-0.049). There was a significant mean difference in depression scores among participants with sedentary and non-sedentary behaviour. (p-value-0.046). Conclusion: The study was able to find significant association between sedentary behaviour and depression. Promotion of physical activity could help in improvement of negative emotional effects.