Gender-specific associations between leisure-time physical activity and symptoms of anxiety: the HUNT study

Purpose The underlying goal of the study was to examine gender-specific effects of leisure-time physical activity on the development of symptoms of anxiety. Methods The second wave of a prospective cohort survey (HUNT 2) was conducted during 1995-1997 in the county of Nord-Trondelag, Norway, with a follow-up in 2006-2008 (HUNT 3). The sample consisted of 12,796 women and 11,195 men with an age range of 19-85 years. A binomial model with a log-link function and generalized linear model analysis with gamma distribution was used to assess the association between physical activity and anxiety symptoms (Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale anxiety subscale, HADS-A). Results A total of 1,211 (9.5 %) women and 650 (5.8 %) men developed HADS-defined anxiety (>= 8 on the HADS-A scale). Men who scored in the middle tertile of the calculated physical activity index developed significantly fewer cases of HADS-defined anxiety compared with men in the lowest tertile (p < 0.05). In the gamma regression analysis for women, having higher scores on the moderate-high physical activity was associated with fewer symptoms of anxiety (p < 0.01). Conclusions Women developed almost twice as many cases of HADS-defined anxiety compared to men. Significant associations were found between general leisure-time physical activity and anxiety symptoms among women and men, but the true effect is likely to be different from the observed associations due to several threats to the internal validity in the study.