Abstract
The purpose of this study was to investigate the association between intense physical activity and stress in Korean adolescents. The study used data from the Korea Youth Risk Behavior Web-Based Survey (KYRBWS), 2015–2017, that included 170,359 responses from Korean adolescents. Intense activity and stress were measured by self-diagnosis. Additionally, the chi-square test and multiple logistic regression analyses were used. It was revealed that 78.9% of Korean adolescents were exposed to stress. Students who engaged in physical activity more than five times per week were less likely to be stressed than those who did not (boys odds ratio (OR): 0.79, confidence interval (CI): 0.78–0.80, p for trend: <0.0001; girls OR: 0.77, CI: 0.75–0.79, p for trend: <0.0001). The results indicated the same tendency among both boys and girls. The results of subgroup analysis revealed that students living with relatives or in childcare facilities were more likely to experience stress if they had insufficient exercise. In addition, the results confirmed that the probability of suicidal ideation increased as the frequency of exercise decreased. This study suggests that intense physical activity in Korean adolescents has a positive effect on stress management in both boys and girls. Hence, physical activity should be encouraged and implemented for managing stress.
Highlights
Stress is an organism’s response to a stressor such as an environmental condition [1,2]
We found that the stress response rate tended to decrease with groups that exercise frequently for both boys and girls
Our study found that stress was related to depression or suicidal ideation
Summary
Stress is an organism’s response to a stressor such as an environmental condition [1,2]. This can affect the body physically or psychologically. A Canadian expert has categorized stress into good stress and bad stress and defined these as eustress and distress, respectively. Eustress may manifest as an immediate burden, it is a stress to develop life in the future. Many previous studies that we refer to suggested that stress is related to mental health, such as depression and suicide, in terms of distress, and may affect sleep, cardiovascular disease, and immune system disorders Distress has been defined as being able to cause anxiety, depression, and other symptoms that persist despite coping or adaptation [3,4,5].
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