STUDY ON RELIEVING MENTAL STRESS OF QUARANTINED PEOPLE BY INDOOR EXERCISE DURING THE COVID-19 EPIDEMIC

Background: During the epidemic, the mental health of quarantined people is seriously affected. Indoor exercise can alleviate peoples' mental problems and promote physical health, making it an excellent choice for quarantined people. In this study, different frequencies, durations and types of indoor exercise have been investigated, to analyze their effectiveness in relieving mental stress of quarantined people, so as to provide a reference on the issue of mental health protection for quarantined people. Subjects and methods: In this study, 500 quarantined people from Hebei province have been selected as subjects. Three experiments have been conducted to analyze the effect of exercise on stress relief for quarantined people. Experiment 1 examined the frequency of exercise; experiment 2 examined the duration of exercise and experiment 3 examined the exercise program. The research tools include the Wenjuanxing (an online questionnaire survey platform), the statistical analysis tool SPSS 27.0, and the Sentiment Self-assessment Scale-21 (DASS-21). Results: The three DASS scores for the isolates, stress and anxiety are the most severe symptoms. In experiment 1, there is no significant difference in relieving mental stress for exercising 3-5 days per week versus 7 days per week. In experiment 2, depression, anxiety and stress decreased significantly before 45-60 min and almost remained unchanged after this period. In experiment 3, the effect of mixed exercise is better than that of a single exercise (P > 0.01). Conclusions: Exercise 3-5 times a week is appropriate. The optimal duration of each exercise session is between 45-60 min, with the effect decreasing in sequence for less than 45 min and not increasing significantly for more than 60 min.