Physical Activity And Mental Health In Injured Adolescents

Abstract

PURPOSE: Approximately 20% of adolescents meet the minimal standards of moderate to vigorous physical activity (PA) national guidelines. Adolescents that accrue lower PA have greater depression and anxiety symptoms when compared to adolescents that engage in higher amounts of PA. Musculoskeletal injuries are common in adolescents and may exacerbate depression or anxiety symptoms that were decreased due to the ability to partake in PA. In addition, injuries may cause new anxiety and depression symptoms. While PA has generally been shown to help decrease and protect against both depression and anxiety symptoms in adolescents, some recent work has questioned the impact of PA on adolescent mental health. The purpose of this study was to determine if adequate levels of PA in adolescents that have experienced an injury had less anxiety and depression symptoms. METHODS: A total of 63 adolescents (59% female; mean age = 14.57 ± 1.52 years) between the ages of 12-18 that were being treated by a tertiary sports medicine clinic were enrolled. Participants filled out the Patient Health Questionairre-9 (PHQ-9) and the Generalized Anxiety Disorder-7 (GAD-7) to measure depression and anxiety symptoms, respectively. Scores greater than 5 were considered elevated for each scale and prompted further evaluation by the attending physician. PA was self-reported by asking exercise vital sign questions to obtain days per week and minutes per day of moderate to vigorous physical activity from the past week. RESULTS: Average PHQ-9 score was 3.63 ± 4.11, average GAD-7 score was 3.33 ± 3.60 and average weekly PA was 319.37 ± 261.12 minutes. There were 22% with elevated PHQ-9 scores, nearly 24% with elevated GAD-7 scores and 35% reported meeting the PA guidelines in the last week. There were no differences between those who met or did not meet PA guidelines on the proportion of those with elevated depression or anxiety scores (p = .47, p = .93, respectively). CONCLUSIONS: While there were no differences between the prevalence of elevated depression or anxiety scores between those who met or did not meet PA guidelines, injured adolescents had high rates of elevated scores for anxiety and depression. Clinicians should consider screening injured adolescents for anxiety and depression to aid in early intervention.