The levels of Physical Activity, Mental Health, and Sedentary Behaviour of Health Science students in UTAR during COVID-19 pandemic

Abstract

Background: The COVID-19 pandemic forcing the students to stay at home to curb the spread of the coronavirus, which inevitably affects their mental and physical health. Thus, the evaluation of mental health (MH), physical activity (PA) and Sedentary Behaviour (SB) of Health Science students during COVID-19 is a need. Objective: To evaluate the physical activity level, mental health and sedentary behaviour of Health Science students in UTAR during COVID-19 and find the correlation among them. Method: 258 health science students were participated in this study via social media, like Facebook and WhatsApp, The Depression, anxiety, stress scale-21 (DASS-21) was used to assess mental health and the International Physical Activity Questionnaire (IPAQ) was used to assess physical activity levels and sedentary behaviour. Result: There were 34.89%, 55.04% and 25.58% of Health Science students were suffering moderate to extremely severe level of depression, anxiety and stress, respectively. Females had a higher prevalence in anxiety (F:55.49%, M: 53.95%) and stress (F:26.37%, M:23.69%), while depression more prevalent in males (M:42.81%, F: 31.87%). The Chinese Medicine students had the poorest mental health and this followed by Physiotherapy, M.B.B.S and Nursing students. Besides, the prevalence of physical inactivity was 48.99%, which a higher prevalence in females (51.43%) than males (43.10%). Besides, 39.53% of Chinese Medicine Students, 62% of M.B.B.S students, 55.56% of Nursing students and 44.83% of Physiotherapy students were categorized as physical inactivity. The prevalence of sedentary behaviour was 48.10% in Health Science students. Besides, no significant correlation found between physical activity and mental health, and sedentary behaviour and mental health. A weak negative correlation was found between physical activity and sedentary behaviour. Conclusion: The prevalence of Depression, Anxiety, Stress, Physical Inactivity and Sedentary Behaviour during the pandemic was very alarming. From government to institution, adequate and regular surveillance, policy monitoring and further research should be taken.