Zhao Q, Wang X, Li SF, Wang P, Wang X, Xin X, Yin SW, Yin ZS, Mao LJ. Relationship between physical activity and specific working memory indicators of depressive symptoms in university students. World J Psychiatry 2024; 14(1): 148-158 [PMID: 38327896 DOI: 10.5498/wjp.v14.i1.148]
Corresponding Author of This Article
Li-Juan Mao, PhD, Professor, School of Physical Education, Shanghai University of Sport, No. 399 Changhai Road, Yangpu District, Shanghai 200438, China.maolijuan@sus.edu.cn
Research Domain of This Article
Psychology
Article-Type of This Article
Observational Study
Open-Access Policy of This Article
This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Qun Zhao, Xing Wang, Shu-Fan Li, Peng Wang, Xiang Wang, Xin Xin, Suo-Wang Yin, Zhao-Song Yin, Li-Juan Mao, School of Physical Education, Shanghai University of Sport, Shanghai 200438, China
Qun Zhao, Department of Physical Education, Donghua University, Shanghai 201620, China
Author contributions: Zhao Q wrote the original manuscript and collected the data; Wang X collected and analyzed the data; Wang P wrote part of the manuscript; Xin X and Yin ZS collected the data; Li SF curated the data; Wang X and Yin SW curated the data; Mao LJ reviewed and edited.
Institutional review board statement: The study was reviewed and approved by the Science and Research Office of Shanghai University of Sport (Shanghai).
Informed consent statement: All study participants, or their legal guardian, provided informed written consent prior to study enrollment.
Conflict-of-interest statement: The authors declare no conflicts of interest.
Data sharing statement: No additional data is available.
STROBE statement: The authors have read the STROBE Statement-checklist of items, and the manuscript was prepared and revised according to the STROBE Statement-checklist of items.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: https://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Li-Juan Mao, PhD, Professor, School of Physical Education, Shanghai University of Sport, No. 399 Changhai Road, Yangpu District, Shanghai 200438, China.maolijuan@sus.edu.cn
Received: October 17, 2023 Peer-review started: October 17, 2023 First decision: November 30, 2023 Revised: December 9, 2023 Accepted: December 28, 2023 Article in press: December 28, 2023 Published online: January 19, 2024
Abstract
BACKGROUND
The detection rate of depression among university students has been increasing in recent years, becoming one of the main psychological diseases that endangers their physical and mental health. According to statistics, self-harm and suicide, for which there is no effective intervention, are the second leading causes of death.
AIM
To explore the relationship between different elements and levels of physical activity and college students’ depression-symptom-specific working memory indicators.
METHODS
Of 143 college students were analyzed using the Beck Depression Self-Rating Scale, the Physical Activity Rating Scale, and the Working Memory Task.
RESULTS
There was a significant difference between college students with depressive symptoms and healthy college students in completing verbal and spatial working memory (SWM) tasks correctly (all P < 0.01). Physical Activity Scale-3 scores were significantly and positively correlated with the correct rate of the verbal working memory task (r = 0.166) and the correct rate of the SWM task (r = 0.210) (all P < 0.05). There were significant differences in the correct rates of verbal and SWM tasks according to different exercise intensities (all P < 0.05) and different exercise durations (all P < 0.05), and no significant differences in the correct rates of verbal and SWM tasks by exercise frequency (all P > 0.05).
CONCLUSION
An increase in physical exercise among college students, particularly medium- and high-intensity exercise and exercise of 30 min or more, can improve the correct rate of completing working memory tasks.
Core Tip: This study discusses physical exercise in university students with depression and the specificity of their working memory. In addition, this study analyzes the relationships between the three variables through cross-sectional research, the relationship between different factors, performance of physical exercise, and working memory of university students with depression.
