The relationship between physical activity pre COVID-19 pandemic with mental health, depression, and anxiety in COVID-19 patients: a cross-sectional study

PURPOSE: Covid-19 pandemic has gained a growing trend and affected mental health in several aspects. Physical activity guidelines was strongly associated with a reduced risk for severe COVID-19 outcomes among infected adults. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the association between physical activity pre COVID–19 pandemic with mental health, depression, and anxiety in COVID-19 patients. METHODS: 206 hospitalized patients diagnosed with covid-19 (140 male and 66 female, aged 34.5 ± 12) were selected and completed physical activity questionnaire (IPAQ) and hospital anxiety and depression questionnaire (HADS). For physical activity status assessment, a self-completed IPAQ questionnaire was taken and patients were divided into: (1) low active, (2) moderate active and (3) high active groups according to their physical activity experience. One-way ANOVA test was recruited and Tukey post hoc test was taken to assess difference among means. Pearson correlation was used to evaluate the association between physical activity level and mental health status (p < 0.05). RESULTS: The results from this study showed that anxiety and depression was significantly higher in low active patients (p = 0.001) and there was a negative correlation between physical activity level and HADS (p = 0.001). However, patients with high physical activity pre COVID-19 pandemic have a lowest levels of anxiety and depression compare to other groups (p < 0.001). CONCLUSION: It seems that adequate physical activity as a part of a healthy lifestyle may have a beneficial effect on mental health during the current outbreak of covid-19. Therefore, it is suggested that we perform exercise training every day to preconditioning effects.