Association between number of days of leisure sports participation and frequency of symptoms of sleep, social isolation, and diet

Abstract

Aims: This study examined the association between the number of days of walking participation and frequency of eating, depressive, and sleep disorders symptoms.Methods: Data of 231,351 Korean adults were obtained from the 2022 Community Health Survey. Multivariate logistic regression analysis was performed to evaluate the association, which was also analyzed by sex and age. The results showed that the more days adults with eating or depressive disorder walked, the less likely they were to suffer from symptoms. Additionally, the more severe the eating or depressive disorder symptoms, the greater the effect of walking. Thus, walking was effective in reducing the symptoms of eating and depressive disorders. For adults with sleep disorders, walking compared with not walking was more likely to cause symptoms. However, regardless of the age and sex, as the number of walking days increased, the degree of sleep disturbance decreased. Specifically, for eating disorder symptoms, adults who walked 5 or more days per week compared with those who did not walk were 0.939 (95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.912–0.968, P<0.001), 0.755 (95% CI: 0.705–0.808, P<0.001), and 0.667 (95% CI: 0.623–0.713, P<0.001) less likely to suffer from eating disorder symptoms for several days, more than a week, and almost daily, respectively. For depressive disorder symptoms, adults who walked 5 or more days per week compared with those who did not walk were 0.967 (95% CI: 0.938–0.997, P<0.05), 0.717 (95% CI: 0.666–0.773, P<0.001), and 0.645 (95% CI: 0.594–0.700, P<0.001) less likely to suffer from depressive disorder symptoms for several days, more than a week, and almost daily, respectively. For sleep disorder symptoms, adults who walked 5 or more days per week compared with those who did not walk were 1.126 (95% CI: 1.095–1.158, P<0.001) more likely to suffer sleep disorder symptoms for several days.Conclusion: Walking was effective for women with eating disorders and depression and for men with sleep disorders. Furthermore, the effect of walking was greater among individuals aged 65 years or older, as they were less likely to suffer from eating, depressive, and sleep disorder symptoms than those observed among individuals aged 19–44 and 45–64 years. The results of this study serve as foundational data for the development and implementation of walking programs that improve the quality of life of people suffering from eating, depressive, and sleep disorder symptoms.