Intervention of Physical Activity for University Students with Anxiety and Depression during the COVID-19 Pandemic Prevention and Control Period: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

Qingyuan Luo, Peng Zhang, Yijia Liu, Xiujie Ma () and George Jennings
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Qingyuan Luo: School of Wushu, Chengdu Sport University, Chengdu 610041, China
Peng Zhang: School of Wushu, Chengdu Sport University, Chengdu 610041, China
Yijia Liu: School of Foreign Languages, Xi’an Jiaotong University, Xi’an 710100, China
Xiujie Ma: School of Wushu, Chengdu Sport University, Chengdu 610041, China
George Jennings: Cardiff School of Sport and Health Sciences, Cardiff Metropolitan University, Cardiff CF23 6XD, UK

IJERPH, 2022, vol. 19, issue 22, 1-20

Abstract: (1) Background: Although physical activity has been widely recognized as an effective way to improve anxiety and depression, we lack a systematic summary of research on improving anxiety and depression during the COVID-19 pandemic. The study aims to systematically analyze how physical activity impacts on this situation in college students during COVID-19. (2) Methods: Both Chinese and English databases (PubMed the Cochrane Library, EMBASE, Web of Science, Scopus, Chinese National Knowledge Infrastructure, Wanfang) were analyzed. All the randomized controlled trials (RCTs) about physical activity intervention for this were included. We received eight eligible RCT experiments before the retrieval time (4 October 2022) in the meta-analysis. (3) Results: Physical activity benefits for college students with significant anxiety were (SMD = −0.50; 95% CI = −0.83 to −0.17; I 2 = 84%; p < 0.001; Z = 2.98;) and depression (SMD = −0.62; 95% CI = −0.99 to −0.25; I 2 = 80.7%; p < 0.001; Z = 3.27). Subgroup analyses showed physical activity of different intensities significantly impacted on improving college students’ depression and anxiety, but physical activity of 6 < 9 Mets intensity had a greater effect on anxiety than on depression. Interventions of eight weeks or less performed better than those of over eight weeks while interventions less than four times per week had a significant effect on improving the situation. The overall effect of a single intervention of 30 min was more effective than one of over 60 min. (4) Conclusion: Physical activities can effectively improve the situation of anxiety and depression for college students during the COVID-19 pandemic. However, a higher quality RCT experiment is needed to prove it.

Keywords: COVID-19 epidemic; physical activity; university students; anxiety; depression; meta-analysis; systematic review (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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