Relationship Between Objectively Measured Physical Activity and Chronic Stress Level

Regular physical activity can help in the prevention of cardiovascular risk, decrease blood pressure, increase high definition lipoproteins, and control blood glucose levels and body mass management. Physical activity is also usually associated with lower levels of stress. Purpose: The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between daily steps and chronic stress levels. Methods: A total of 94 college students, predominantly females, volunteered to participated in this study; a total of 84 (18 males, 66 females; age = 21.2 ± 3.3 years; BMI = 26.5 ± 5.7 kg/m2) had enough step data (> 4 days) and completed the stress questionnaire. Physical activity was measured for seven consecutive days using an Omron HJ-151 pedometer and chronic stress level was measured using the Perceived Stress Scale -10 (PSS-10). The PSS-10 scale ranges from 0-40 with a higher score meaning a higher stress level. Analysis/Results: Pearson correlation coefficient was computed to determine the relationship between average daily steps and stress level. In addition, independent t-test was computed to investigate possible differences between inactive (< 7,500 steps per day) and active (≥ 7,500 steps per day) participants (Tudor-Locke and Bassett, 2004). The average daily steps were 6,536 ± 2,556 steps and the average stress level was 16.2 ± 5.5. The results showed no relationship between average daily steps and stress level, r = .01. The average stress level for the inactive group was 15.9 ± 5.8 and the average stress level for the active group was 17.1 ± 4.5. The independent t-test results showed no significant difference between the stress levels between groups t(84) = -.86, p = .39. Conclusions: Contrary to the expectations, there was no correlation between directly measured physical activity and stress levels, and the active group showed similar levels of stress to the inactive group. However, this was a fairly inactive group with only 24% of participants classified as active and only 7% of participants were above the usually recommended 10,000 steps per day. Further investigation of the relationship between physical activity intensity and stress level is warranted.