DOI: 10.47582/jompac.1998346 ISSN: 2717-7505

Physical activity, depressive symptoms, and quality of life in remote-learning vocational health students: a cross-sectional study

Burak Buğday, Havva Adlı, Gülsüm Yetiş Koca, Perihan Gürbüz
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Aims: To examine associations of total physical activity volume with depressive symptom severity and health-related quality of life (HRQoL) among vocational health services students receiving fully remote education. Methods: This cross-sectional survey included 332 associate-degree students. Physical activity was measured with the Turkish International Physical Activity Questionnaire-Short Form (IPAQ-SF) as metabolic equivalent minutes per week (MET-min/week); depressive symptom severity with the Beck Depression Inventory-I (BDI-I); and physical/mental HRQoL as study specific 36-Item Short Form Health Survey (SF-36) subscale sums. Three two-step hierarchical linear regressions adjusted for age, gender, perceived economic status, chronic disease, and smoking status. Results: Total physical activity volume was not independently associated with BDI-I score (β=-0.033, p=0.527) or physical HRQoL (β=0.012, p=0.829). Its association with mental HRQoL was positive but did not reach conventional significance in the primary model (β=0.099, p=0.062) and was sensitive to model specification. Female gender, income lower than expenses, current smoking, and chronic disease were associated with less favorable outcomes in the fully adjusted models; income higher than expenses was associated with higher mental HRQoL. Exploratory Spearman analyses showed weak positive correlations of physical activity volume with physical functioning, vitality, and mental health after false-discovery-rate correction. Conclusion: In this remote-learning cohort, social and health-related vulnerabilities showed more consistent associations with depressive symptom severity and HRQoL than total weekly physical activity volume. The possible association between physical activity and mental HRQoL requires confirmation in longitudinal studies using more detailed or objective activity measures.

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