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RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN VOLUME OF PHYSICAL ACTIVITY AND SLEEP QUALITY AMONG COLLEGE STUDENTS

Abstract

Nishra Patel, Ed Cunliff, Jacilyn Olson and Melissa Powers

University of Central Oklahoma, Edmond, OK

In terms of primary prevention and therapeutic education, physical activity (PA) and sleep are crucial components of a healthy lifestyle. College students have a high prevalence of poor sleep quality (SQ) and improving sleep quality could have a large impact on this group. PA may be an important component to improve sleep quality. PURPOSE: The main purpose of this study was to determine the relationship between volume of physical activity and sleep quality among college students. METHODS: Participants (n=146) were college students who enrolled at a regional university. The recruitment was done by email blast with survey link included. The online survey consisted of the short-form International Physical Activity Questionnaire (IPAQ) to quantify volume of physical activity (PA) and Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI) to measure sleep quality. Total PA, vigorous PA, moderate PA and walking PA was calculated from IPAQ in MET·min·wk-1. PSQI includes a global sleep quality index as well as seven component scores (lower scores indicating better sleep quality). Spearman correlation was used for analysis between volume of PA and Global PSQI as well as each component score. RESULTS: Three outliers were eliminated because they did not accurately represent the entire group and instead reported much greater METminwk-1than the rest of the group. According to the analysis, a significant indirect correlation between vigorous PA measured as MET·min·wk-1 (891.48±1660.21) and global sleep quality (PSQI=6.8±3.5; p<.05) was observed. A significant indirect correlation was also found between vigorous PA measured as MET·min·wk-1 (891.48±1660.21) and the component score for sleep efficiency (p<.05). CONCLUSION: The results indicate that college students reporting more vigorous PA also report better global sleep quality and better sleep efficiency. Understanding the relationship between sleep quality and PA could help college health professionals develop effective PA interventions to not only increase PA among college students, but also improve their sleep quality.

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