IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jijerp/v21y2024i4p428-d1368295.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Associations of Anxiety, Insomnia, and Physical Activity during the COVID-19 Pandemic

Author

Listed:
  • Selene Y. Tobin

    (Department of Health and Kinesiology, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT 84112, USA)

  • Tanya M. Halliday

    (Department of Health and Kinesiology, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT 84112, USA)

  • Kimberley Shoaf

    (Department of Family and Preventative Medicine, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT 84112, USA)

  • Ryan D. Burns

    (Department of Health and Kinesiology, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT 84112, USA)

  • Kelly G. Baron

    (Department of Family and Preventative Medicine, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT 84112, USA)

Abstract

Purpose: Anxiety, insomnia, and physical activity (PA) are interrelated, but the bi-directional relationships between these three variables are not well understood. Less is known of these relationships in settings of disrupted daily activities and acute stress. This study aimed to characterize and examine relationships between insomnia, anxiety, and PA throughout the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic, when many lifestyle behaviors were disrupted. Methods: Participants comprised a convenience sample of 204 adults (55.4% female; 43.85 ± 15.85 years old) who completed the Generalized Anxiety Disorder Questionnaire (GAD-7), Insomnia Severity Index (ISI), and the International Physical Activity Questionnaire (IPAQ) at three time points through the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic. A cross-lagged panel model was used to evaluate these variables’ concurrent, autoregressive, and cross-lagged relationships across time. Follow-up dynamic panel modeling using maximum likelihood and structural equation modeling was employed. Results: Approximately 64% of participants reported their work/occupation as affected by the pandemic. At baseline, associations between anxiety and insomnia were observed (β-coefficient: 15.87; p < 0.001). Insomnia was a positive future predictor of anxiety (ISI time point 2: 7.9 ± 5.6 points; GAD-7 at time point 3: 4.1 ± 4.2 points; β-coefficient: 0.16; p < 0.01). No associations were observed between PA and anxiety or insomnia (all p > 0.05). Conclusions: Insomnia and anxiety were interrelated, and effects were cross-lagged. These data can inform future work focused on improving anxiety in settings of acute stress and disruptions to daily life, such as changes in occupational structure and stability. Specifically, targeting sleep parameters may be of interest to elicit downstream positive health behaviors.

Suggested Citation

  • Selene Y. Tobin & Tanya M. Halliday & Kimberley Shoaf & Ryan D. Burns & Kelly G. Baron, 2024. "Associations of Anxiety, Insomnia, and Physical Activity during the COVID-19 Pandemic," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 21(4), pages 1-12, April.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:21:y:2024:i:4:p:428-:d:1368295
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/21/4/428/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/21/4/428/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Taehyun Ahn, 2016. "Reduction of Working Time: Does It Lead to a Healthy Lifestyle?," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 25(8), pages 969-983, August.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Stéphane Carcillo & Alexander Hijzen & Stefan Thewissen, 2024. "The limitations of overtime limits to reduce long working hours: Evidence from the 2018 to 2021 working time reform in Korea," British Journal of Industrial Relations, London School of Economics, vol. 62(1), pages 98-126, March.
    2. Nur Nahar Yasmin, 2024. "Four-day workweek in corporate sector: post-pandemic work arrangement for Bangladesh," SN Business & Economics, Springer, vol. 4(7), pages 1-26, July.
    3. Berniell, Inés & Bietenbeck, Jan, 2020. "The effect of working hours on health," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 39(C).
    4. Andrea Albanese & Bart Cockx & Yannick Thuy, 2020. "Working time reductions at the end of the career: Do they prolong the time spent in employment?," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 59(1), pages 99-141, July.
    5. Lauren E. Jones & Guangyi Wang & Tansel Yilmazer, 2022. "The long‐term effect of the Earned Income Tax Credit on women's physical and mental health," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 31(6), pages 1067-1102, June.
    6. André Cieplinski & Simone D'Alessandro & Chandni Dwarkasing & Pietro Guarnieri, 2022. "Narrowing women’s time and income gaps: an assessment of the synergies between working time reduction and universal income schemes," Working Papers 250, Department of Economics, SOAS University of London, UK, revised Apr 2022.
    7. Cieplinski, André & D'Alessandro, Simone & Dwarkasing, Chandni & Guarnieri, Pietro, 2023. "Narrowing women’s time and income gaps: An assessment of the synergies between working time reduction and universal income schemes," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 167(C).
    8. Taehyun Ahn, 2022. "Workweek reduction and women's job turnover: Evidence from labor legislation in South Korea," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 60(4), pages 1607-1625, October.
    9. Fei Zhang & Wei Xu & Adnan Khurshid, 2023. "The Interplay of Migrant Workers’ Working Hours, Income, and Well-Being in China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(14), pages 1-14, July.
    10. Hu, Zhi-An & Liu, Chang & Wen, Yiping, 2024. "Working hours and employee health: Evidence from China's workweek reduction policy," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 88(C).
    11. Park, Yoonsoo & Park, Wooram, 2017. "The Impact of a Workweek Reduction on Labor Productivity," KDI Policy Forum 267, Korea Development Institute (KDI).
    12. Terhi Ravaska, 2023. "Do reduced working hours for older workers have health consequences and prolong work careers?," Working Papers 6, Finnish Centre of Excellence in Tax Systems Research.
    13. Ravaska, Terhi, 2023. "Do reduced working hours for older workers have health consequences and prolong work careers?," Working Papers 153, VATT Institute for Economic Research.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:21:y:2024:i:4:p:428-:d:1368295. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.