Jul 2026· Korean Journal of Family Medicine· 0 citations· 32 references
Medicine
TL;DR
Regularity of physical activity may be more important for mental health than total activity volume alone.
Abstract
Background
Recently, the "weekend warrior" pattern, characterized by meeting recommended physical activity (PA) guidelines within one or two weekly sessions, has received increasing attention. However, its association with mental health outcomes remains unclear. This study aimed to examine the relationship between PA patterns and depressive symptoms.
Methods
This study analyzed data from 26,424 adults from the Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey conducted in 2014, 2016, 2018, 2020, and 2022. PA was assessed by a self-reported questionnaire and classified according to World Health Organization guidelines for moderate-to-vigorous PA. Participants were categorized as inactive (<150 min/ wk), weekend warriors (≥150 min/wk over 1-2 days), or regularly active (≥150 min/wk over ≥3 days). Depressive symptoms were defined as a Patient Health Questionnaire-9 score ≥5. Associations were examined using multivariable logistic regression, stratified by sex and age.
Results
Prevalence of depressive symptoms among participants was 19.3%. The weekend warrior PA pattern was not significantly associated with depressive symptoms. Contrarily, the regularly active PA pattern was inversely associated with depressive symptoms (odds ratio [OR], 0.72; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.66-0.79); this association remained significant after multivariable adjustment (OR, 0.81; 95% CI, 0.74-0.89). In stratified analyses by sex and age group, the regularly active group consistently showed an inverse association with depressive symptoms, whereas no significant association was observed for the weekend warrior PA pattern.
Conclusion
Regularity of physical activity may be more important for mental health than total activity volume alone.
Background Evidence shows that the weekend warrior physical activity (PA) pattern (1–2 days/week) is associated with a lower risk of hypertension, but it is unclear whether this association differs by socioeconomic status (SES). This study aimed to examine whether the association between the weekend warrior PA pattern and prevalent hypertension differs according to SES in Korean adults. Methods We analyzed 28,039 adults (aged ≥ 19 years) from the 2018–2023 Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey. PA patterns were categorized as inactive, insufficiently active, weekend warrior, or regularly active. Educational attainment (high school or less vs. college or higher) and household income (Q1–Q2 vs. Q3–Q4) were used as proxies of SES. Hypertension was defined as systolic blood pressure ≥ 140 mmHg, diastolic blood pressure ≥ 90 mmHg, a physician diagnosis, or use of antihypertensive medication. Multivariable logistic regression estimated odds ratios (ORs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) for prevalent hypertension across PA patterns, stratified by educational attainment and household income level. Results Among 28,039 adults, 8,842 (31.5%) had hypertension. In multivariable-adjusted models, compared with inactive participants, insufficiently active (OR, 0.85; 95% CI, 0.77–0.93), weekend warrior (OR, 0.74; 95% CI, 0.59–0.92), and regularly active (OR, 0.84; 95% CI, 0.77–0.91) PA patterns were each associated with lower odds of prevalent hypertension. There was no significant educational attainment-by-weekend warrior interaction for prevalent hypertension (P for interaction = 0.349), whereas a significant household income-by- weekend warrior interaction was observed (P for interaction = 0.049), with a more pronounced inverse association among lower-income adults. Conclusions PA patterns, including the weekend warrior pattern, were associated with lower odds of prevalent hypertension among Korean adults. The inverse association between the weekend warrior pattern and hypertension appeared to differ by household income level, with a more pronounced inverse association among lower-income adults. Further studies in large longitudinal cohorts are warranted to confirm these findings.
Tae Gu Choi, Sangshin Park, S. Kunutsor et al.· Clinical Hypertension· 0 citations
BACKGROUND
This study aimed to evaluate associations between the Weekend Warrior (WW) physical-activity pattern and adverse sleep outcomes in adults.
METHODS
Data were from adults ≥20 years in four NHANES cycles (2007-2014). Based on self-reported leisure-time MVPA, participants were classified as inactive, insufficiently active, WW, or regularly active (RA). Primary analyses were conducted in the complete-case sample (n = 16,036), and missing covariates were addressed in a multiple-imputation sensitivity analysis (n = 22,495). Survey-weighted logistic regression estimated associations of patterns with short and long sleep, sleep problems, and sleep disorders. Restricted cubic splines evaluated non-linear relations between weekly MVPA and sleep outcomes.
RESULTS
Compared with inactivity, the WW pattern was associated with lower odds of self-reported sleep problems (OR = 0.73, 95% CI: 0.57-0.95), and also showed lower odds of sleep problems compared with RA (OR = 0.76, 95% CI: 0.60-0.97). The RA pattern was associated with lower odds of physician-diagnosed sleep disorders (OR = 0.72, 95% CI: 0.57-0.90) and short sleep (OR = 0.84, 95% CI: 0.77-0.91) compared with inactivity. Multiple-imputation sensitivity analyses yielded broadly consistent findings for sleep problems and sleep disorders. In the overall sample, weekly MVPA showed significant non-linear associations with sleep problems and sleep disorders, with lower estimated odds observed at moderate-to-high MVPA volumes.
CONCLUSIONS
WW and RA patterns were both associated with more favorable sleep profiles than inactivity, suggesting that concentrated as well as regularly distributed activity may be compatible with better sleep health.
Zi-Lin Fan, Zi-Lin Fan, Haonan Wang et al.· American Journal of the Medi...· 0 citations
Introduction Although physical activity (PA) is a multidimensional behavior, most research has focused on total PA volume, meeting PA recommendations, or absolute vigorous physical activity (VPA), rather than on how VPA is distributed within total PA. Therefore, the proportion of VPA within total PA remains an underexplored feature of activity patterns. This exploratory analysis examined whether depressive symptoms and selected sociodemographic, behavioral, health and study-related characteristics were associated with different proportions of VPA within total PA among sufficiently active medical students. Methods This was a secondary analysis of data from a cross-sectional study that included 656 sufficiently active fifth-year medical students from five universities in Serbia. PA was assessed using the International Physical Activity Questionnaire (IPAQ-SF), and depressive symptoms were measured with the Patient Health Questionnaire-9 (PHQ-9). Participants were categorized based on the proportion of VPA within total PA into three groups: no VPA contribution, low-to-moderate VPA contribution, and higher VPA contribution, corresponding to 0%, 0.01%–30%, and >30% VPA within total PA. Results In pairwise multivariable logistic regression analyses, higher PHQ-9 scores were associated with lower odds of belonging to the 0.01%–30% VPA group than to the 0% VPA group, whereas no significant association was observed for the >30% VPA group. VPA categories were also associated with age, sex, meal frequency, alcohol use, perceived social support, and total energy expenditure. Conclusions These findings suggest that, among sufficiently active medical students, depressive symptoms and several sociodemographic, behavioral and health characteristics are associated with differences in VPA distribution within total PA. The association with depressive symptoms was limited to the comparison between no VPA and low-to-moderate VPA proportion. Future longitudinal and experimental studies are needed to clarify these associations beyond the limitations of a cross-sectional self-reported design.
K. Stratakis, J. Todorović, M. Mirkovic et al.· Frontiers in Sports and Acti...· 0 citations
: Background: Sedentary behavior is associated with increased depressive symptoms, but longitudinal studies on this topic are lacking. This 3-year prospective cohort study aimed to determine whether baseline learning and screen time were associated with the risk of depressive symptoms during follow-up among Chinese college students. Methods: This study analyzed information about 1318 college students at Shenyang Normal University who were assessed at baseline in November 2017 and followed up annually from 2018 to November 2020. Sedentary behavior was evaluated using self-reported questionnaires about learning and screen time, and depressive symptoms were identified using the Zung Self-Rating Depression Scale. Associations between sedentary behavior and depressive symptoms were analyzed using logistic regression with sociodemographic and lifestyle covariates. Results: Logistic regression analysis indicated that the risk of depressive symptoms in the highest tertile (T3, >510 min/day) of learning time was lower than that in the lowest tertile (T1, ≤ 160 min/day) in the final adjusted model (Model 2: odds ratio [OR], 0.76; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.58–1.00; p = 0.050). Conversely, students in the middle screen-time tertile (T2, 90–200 min/day) had a higher risk of depressive symptoms than those in the lowest tertile (T1, ≤ 90 min/day; Model 2: OR = 1.43, 95% CI = 1.08, 1.89, p = 0.01). Conclusions: Learning-related sedentary behavior might reduce the risk of depressive symptoms among college students, whereas screen time is positively associated with depressive symptoms. This emphasizes the importance of learning in preventing depression and highlights the need for careful consideration of the relationship between different types of sedentary behavior and the risk of depressive symptoms.
Yong Xu, Chunchun Wu, Yan Huang et al.· International Journal of Men...· 0 citations
Physical activity may promote sleep, but few studies examined whether vigorous exercise is associated with difficulty falling asleep or waking in the middle of the night. This study examined the relationship between these variables. The Adventist Health Study-2 (AHS-2) questionnaireline was completed by approximately 97000 churchgoers in North America to investigate relationships between lifestyle, including exercise habits, and chronic disease. A randomly selected subset participated in the Biopsychosocial Religion and Health Study (BRHS), including about 11 000 respondents who answered questions about psychosocial and religious issues, including sleep patterns. After excluding participants with chronic disease, 3960 remained: 2502 women (1502 Whites and 1000 Blacks) and 1458 men (1038 Whites and 420 Blacks). Logistic regressions were adjusted for age, gender, race, body mass index (BMI), diet, education, alcohol, caffeinated-beverage use, hours of sleep, and napping. Increased frequency of vigorous physical activity was protective against difficulty falling asleep (OR = 0.97; 95% CI = 0.94-0.98; P = 0.03). Higher odds of difficulty falling asleep were observed among female participants, increasing age, weekday napping, and sleeping 9 hours or more per night. Vigorous physical activity was associated with reduced difficulty falling asleepline but showed no relation to waking during the night.
Michael Paalani, Drph, Daijah Rdn et al.· American Journal of Lifestyl...· 0 citations
In this online convenience sample of adults aged ≥50 years, sleep quality, anxiety symptoms, and total physical activity showed consistent cross-sectional associations and require confirmation in representative longitudinal studies.
Hammad S. Alhasan, M. Alshehri· Journal of Clinical Medicine· 0 citations
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