2012 Volume 9 Pages 93-100
PURPOSE: To determine whether physical activity and/or sedentary behavior reduces the risk for future onsets in poor mental health across a 6−month period among university students.
METHOD: Participants (N=559) completed the International Physical Activity Questionnaires short version (Murase et al., 2002), the exercise self−efficacy (Oka, 2003), and the General Health Questionnaires 12 items (Honda et al., 2001) in the May of 2010 (baseline data) and October of 2010 (follow−up data).
RESULTS: Among 559 university students, 27.0% (male: 21.2%, female: 33.3%) of them had a poor mental health at baseline. Using logistic regression analyses that controlled for several covariates, we found that high levels of high−intensity physical activity significantly reduced the risk for future developments of poor mental health in males (OR [Odds Ratio]=0.487, 95% CI [confidence interval]：0.247−0.962). Also, high levels of exercise self−efficacy significantly reduced the risk for future developments of poor mental health in males (OR=0.510, 95% CI：0.261−0.996). However, there were not significant relationships between them in females. No predictive effects were for total physical activity and sedentary behavior time in both males and females.
CONCLUSIONS: These results suggested that increasing high−intensity physical activity and/or exercise self−efficacy reduce the risk for future developments of poor mental health among university students.
