Physical Activity and Mental Wellbeing among Academics of Tabriz University of Medical Sciences

Abstract

Physical activity is one the leading protective factors for various diseases and its positively correlated with better mental wellbeing and quality of life. Due to job circumstances, academics usually do not priotize physical activity in their daily routine. In this study we aimed to assess physical activity in academies at a university medical sciences and examine its association with their mental wellbeing Materials and Methods: In this cross-sectional study, 218 academy members from ten faculties of Tabriz University of Medical Sciences participated in the study. The survey was conducted from June 2019 to November 2019. We used the valid and reliable Persian version of the WEMWBS) Warwick-Edinburgh Mental Well-being Scale) and International physical activity questionnaire short form (IPAQ-SF) to measure mental wellbeing score and physical activity. We compared outcomes among different gender groups, academic ranks, faculties, and basic or clinical sciences groups assessed the correlation among physical activity and mental wellbeing using SPSS version 25 at the significance level of 5% Results: We approached 288 faculty members, and 218 (75.69%) participated in the study. Among all participants, the levels of physical activity was less than World health organization’s minimum recommendations for physical activity(600 MET/min), and 53.2% had at least 600 MET/min. Only 36 (39.16%) had physical activity more than 3600 MET/min. There were no statistically significant differences between gender groups (p=0.06) academic ranks (p=0.74), different faculty members (p=0.81), and basic science professors vs clinicians (p=0.69). Academics who commute via their personal car were significantly less physically active than the others(0.008). There was no statistically significant correlation between academics mental wellbeing and their physical activity level (p=0.55).