A 6-month comparison of quality of life and mood states between physically active and sedentary college students

Abstract

Physical inactivity has been described as one of the major public health problems of the 21st century. Physical activity plays an important role in reducing the prevalence of sedentarism, improving the quality of life and improving individuals’ mental health. Objective: This study aimed to perform a 6-month comparison of quality of life (QOL) and mood states (MS) between physically active and sedentary college students. Methods: A sample of 32 individuals completed questionnaires to assess their level of physical activity, quality of life and mood states. They were separated into two groups: sedentary (n=15) and physically active (n=17). The International Physical Activity Questionnaire (IPAQ) was used for assessing PA levels, the WHO Quality of Life-BREF for QOL and the Brazilian Mood Scale for MS. We used factorial analysis of variance with repeated measures and post-hoc Tukey test (p ≤ 0.05) for QOL and MS inferential analysis. Results: QOL was significantly higher for the physically active group in Environment and Social Relationships domains. Similarly, MS showed increased scores in Vigor dimension for the physically active group after six months. Conclusions: These results suggest PA can positively influence aspects of an individuals‘ quality of life. However, our data did not show a significant influence of PA on mood states