ABSTRACT
Objective@#To describe physical activity (PA) level of college students, and to examine the associations between PA and physical health and depression, so as to provide evidence for health promotion of college students.@*Methods@#During June to July 2018, a cross-sectional survey was conducted among 4 624 college students from 2 universities in Anhui and Jiangxi provinces. The basic information was investigated by the questionnaire. PA was assessed by the International Physical Activity Questionnaire(IPAQ). Physical and mental health were evaluated by the 36-item Short Form Health Survey Questionnaire (SF-36) and the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale(CES-D), respectively.Chi-square test was used to examine the differences between physical health and depression among college students with different demographic characteristics. The generalized linear model and binary logistic regression model were used to analyze the relationships between PA and physical health and depression.@*Results@#The proportion of good, medium and poor physical health were 64.5%, 31.6% and 3.9%, respectively. The detection rate of depression was 34.1%. Compared to low PA group, physical health was negatively correlated with medium PA (OR=0.78, 95%CI=0.66-0.91) and high PA(OR=0.46, 95%CI=0.38-0.56). Binary logistic regression results showed that, depression was negatively associated with medium PA (OR=0.69, 95%CI=0.59-0.82) and high PA(OR=0.66, 95%CI=0.55-0.79)(P<0.05). @*Conclusion@#There is a significant association between PA and physical health and depression. Further longitudinal studies are needed to clarify the causal relationship between PA and physical and mental health.