Abstract
Sedentary behaviour contributes to adverse physical health outcomes in youth. Although evidence for the relationship between sedentary behaviour and mental health outcomes is emerging, little is known regarding risk of psychological distress and low self-esteem. The purpose of this study was to investigate the association of sedentary behaviour with psychological distress and self-esteem in a well-characterised young adult population after controlling for a wide range of potential confounders. We adopted a cross-sectional study design. A sample of 352 participants, 208(59.1%) females and 144(40.9%) males responded to a survey. Participants were recruited from University Tunku Abdul Rahman, Malaysia. Sedentary behaviour of the participants was determined by Sedentary Behaviour Questionnaire. Kessler Psychological Distress Scale and Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale were used to measure psychological distress and global self-esteem respectively. Analysis of sedentary behaviour demonstrated that participants have high sedentary times. The highest sedentary behaviour engaged by the participants was doing paperwork or computer work, followed by sitting, listening to music and sitting and talk on a phone. Participants spent least time playing musical instruments. Multi regression analysis was performed to determine the level of significance. Sedentary behaviour showed a statistically significant association with psychological distress and self-esteem. Sedentary behaviour can lead to mental health problems in young adults. These findings have a number of important implications for policy and practice. They highlight the need to ensure that young people have appropriate and timely access to evidence based services and interventions across the continuum. Further high-quality longitudinal or interventional research is needed to confirm findings and determine the direction of these relationships.
Highlights
Time spent in sedentary behavior has emerged as a potentially important indicator of health in youth independent of achieving sufficient physical activity
Research shows the amount of time young people spend in sedentary behaviours has increased in recent years, and while this includes TV time, it is a dramatic increase in other types of screen time such as computers and video games that appears to be driving the trend[2]
A European study led by Spanish researchers has shown how the proportion of young people who watch television and play on the computer for more than two hours per day doubles at the weekend and while boys opt for video games, teenage girls prefer to surf the net[6]
Summary
Time spent in sedentary behavior has emerged as a potentially important indicator of health in youth independent of achieving sufficient physical activity. Research shows the amount of time young people spend in sedentary behaviours has increased in recent years, and while this includes TV time, it is a dramatic increase in other types of screen time such as computers and video games that appears to be driving the trend[2]. In other words, being too sedentary is distinct from not meeting physical activity guidelines[5]. This risk over time may be independent of physical activity. Having a games console or television in the bedroom triples the risk of exceeding the health recommendations to not spend more than two hours per day watching television. Evidence suggests sedentary behaviour is associated with increased risk of developing various chronic diseases e.g. overweight and obesity, type 2 diabetes[9], cardiovascular disease[10], and various cancers
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