Level of Physical Activity, State and Trait-Anxiety in Medical Course students

Ana Gabrielle Cavalcante Dantas, Felipe de Azevedo Gonçalves, Helena Simari Teixeira Mota, Pedro Ivo Uchôa Serra Mendes de Castro, Jocélia Martins Cavalcante Dantas, Rômulo Dayan Camelo Salgado

Abstract

Introduction: Physical activity is associated with several benefits for a satisfactory quality of life and promotes improvement in the symptoms of mental disorders, especially in the academic sphere. Objective: to evaluate the level of physical activity, trait or anxiety state in undergraduate medical students. Materials and Methods: Quantitative, analytical and cross-sectional study, applying a socioeconomic questionnaire, International Physical Activity Questionnaire (IPAQ) and State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (IDATE) with a sample of 192 medical students from a private University in Maranhão in the year 2023. The data were analyzed using the Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS) software and associations were made with the Chi-square or Fisher's Exact tests; normality using the Kolmogorov-Smirnov test and correlations with the Spearman test, with a significance of 5%. Results: There was a predominance of young, very physically active women, with an average of 172 minutes of weekly physical activity, average scores for anxious trait (45.2) and anxious state (46.8). Conclusion: the moderate increase in the level of state anxiety and trait anxiety signals a latent reactivity on the part of medical students, even among those with high levels of physical activity.

Keywords: Anxiety. Physical activity. Medical students.