Association between sedentary behaviour, sleep duration, physical activity and mental health among teachers in China during COVID-19: a cross- sectional study

TL;DR

This study explores how sedentary behavior, sleep, and physical activity affect teachers' mental health in China during the pandemic.

Contribution

The study identifies specific behavioral factors linked to anxiety and depression in teachers during the pandemic.

Findings

Reduced sedentary time and adequate sleep are associated with lower anxiety and depression.

High physical activity frequency may be linked to depression when combined with long sedentary time and short sleep.

Integrated behavioral interventions could help prevent negative emotions in teachers.

Abstract

The COVID-2019 pandemic has led to changes in lifestyles, including sedentary behaviour, sleep duration and physical activity, which have further implications for people’s mental health. However, teachers are an important group whose mental health is often overlooked.

We aimed to investigate the relationship between sedentary behaviour, sleep duration and physical activity on teachers’ mental health during the COVID-19 pandemic in China.

This is a cross-sectional study targeting teachers from 10 schools in Sichuan Province with data sourced from the National Population Health Data Center. We used one-way analyses and multifactorial logistic regression and with model adjustment to explore the factors associated with teachers’ mental health. Subgroup analyses were used to further explore the magnitude of the effects of sedentary time, sleep duration and physical activity on teachers’ mental health.

The data suggest that reduced sedentary time (p = 0.016; p = 0.000) and adequate sleep (p = 0.040; p = 0.000) are related to anxiety and depression, whereas frequency of physical activity (p = 0.002) may be related to depression. Further analyses found that high frequency of physical activity in the context of long sedentary time and short sleep duration may be associated with anxiety and depression.

Integrated behavioural interventions (sedentary behaviour, sleep duration and physical activity) are potential targets for the prevention and intervention of negative emotions in teachers. However, there is a lack of 24-h behavioural movement guidelines that are more specific to particular groups such as teachers, which is a gap that needs to be addressed in the future.