Association of Sedentary Behavior and Depression among College Students Majoring in Design.

Zhen Xu,Fei Xu,Qiuxia Xu,Jiapei Liu,Yifan Wang,Jielu Zhang

doi:10.3390/ijerph17103545

Abstract

Background: This study aimed to specify the prevalence of sedentary behavior and depression and investigate the relationship between sedentary behavior and depression among college students majoring in design. Methods: A total of 480 undergraduate and postgraduate students majoring in design were randomly enrolled from a university in Nanjing for a questionnaire that included sociodemographic data, physical health, sedentary behavior and depression. Results: Participants reported that they spent 14.93 (SD = 1.76) hours on sedentary behavior per day and most of the time occurred outside the classroom. There were 161 (39.8%) students who reported depression, with a statistical difference across grades. After adjusting for sociodemographic attributes, physical health and physical activity, binary logistic regression analysis showed that the total sedentary time and time spent on school assignments on weekends were significantly associated with depression. Conclusions: To reduce the risk of depression, students majoring in design should be encouraged to change sedentary behaviors to physical activities in their study and life, such as using non-seating postures to do school assignments, making time for more physical activities and reducing assignments on weekends.

Highlights

Sedentary behavior is any waking behavior characterized by an energy expenditure ≤1.5 METs while in a sitting or reclining posture [1,2], including watching TV, reading, working on a computer or lying down with a phone
In the week preceding the questionnaire, respondents spent 14.93 (SD = 1.76) hours every day on sedentary behavior, in which 4.14 h a day was spent on class time and 10.79 h a day was spent on optional sedentary behavior
The proportions of time reported optional sedentary behavior in each domain are shown in Table 1 on weekdays and weekends respectively

Summary

Introduction

Sedentary behavior is any waking behavior characterized by an energy expenditure ≤1.5 METs while in a sitting or reclining posture [1,2], including watching TV, reading, working on a computer or lying down with a phone. According to related data from the World Health Organization (WHO), one-quarter of adults have insufficient physical time and three-quarters of adults have too much sedentary time [5]. A sedentary lifestyle could become one of the major public health problems in this century. This study aimed to specify the prevalence of sedentary behavior and depression and investigate the relationship between sedentary behavior and depression among college students majoring in design. Methods: A total of 480 undergraduate and postgraduate students majoring in design were randomly enrolled from a university in Nanjing for a questionnaire that included sociodemographic data, physical health, sedentary behavior and depression. After adjusting for sociodemographic attributes, physical health and physical activity, binary logistic regression analysis showed that the total sedentary time and time spent on school assignments on weekends were significantly associated with depression

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