Are you feeling exhausted? Are you feeling as if you have gone a few rounds with Mike Tyson, or that you are running a race in which the finish line keeps getting moved farther away?
New research from scientists at North Carolina State University shows you are not alone.
The COVID-19 pandemic has turned the past 18 months into a kind of timeless fog that has taken a toll on both our physical and mental health. And as you may have guessed, the findings in this survey of roughly four thousand people across five states shows that physical and mental health are linked. Surveys were conducted in North Carolina, Louisiana, West Virginia, Oregon and Montana.
“I think the one finding that surprised me was the revealing of this unforgiving cycle of once your mental health starts to deteriorate it really makes it more difficult to be physically active and then when you’re not physically active, then that actually hurts your mental health even more,” said Annie Haynes-Maslow, a co-author of the study and Assistant Professor in the Department of Agricultural and Human Sciences at N.C. State.
To use the timeless phrase, it’s a kind of roller coaster ride. And once you start it’s really difficult to stop.
“The pandemic has increased psychological distress, which makes it more difficult for people to maintain their physical activity levels. This, in turn, further hurts their mental health, which makes them less likely to be active, and so on, ”adds Haynes-Maslow.
Researchers focused on two questions for the study: How is the pandemic influencing physical activity and mental health status? And how, if at all, do physical activity and mental health status relate to each other?
The researchers found that the more physically active people were, the better their mental health status. That held true even when accounting for an individual’s race/ethnicity, household income and other socioeconomic demographic variables.
The researchers also found that lower-income households struggled more with both mental health challenges and maintaining physical activity levels. Specifically, people in households that earned less than $50,000 per year were 1.46 times less likely to maintain their pre-pandemic levels physical activity as compared to people in households that earned more than $50,000 per year.
In addition, the survey found the pandemic makes it difficult to find safe places to exercise. Participants in urban areas were more likely to report difficulty maintaining their pre-pandemic physical activity levels, as compared to study participants in rural areas.
Residents of rural areas said open spaces and places provided more opportunities to get outside. That’s something urban residents didn’t have as much access to.
“Our findings drive home that mental health is a persistent challenge during this pandemic,” says Annie Hardison-Moody, co-author of the study and an associate professor of Agricultural and Human Sciences at NC State. “It also helps us understand the importance of having access to open spaces and the barriers that are in place preventing people from accessing those spaces.”
Building those spaces will take time and money, and while it may help create a playbook to deal with future crisis, the message is clear about what is needed to make it through the current pandemic. crisis. Physical and mental health go together.
The paper, “Examining the relationship between physical activity and mental health during the COVID-19 pandemic across five U.S. States,” is published in the journal Preventive Medicine Reports.