EVALUATION OF THE LEVELS OF PHYSICAL ACTIVITY AND MENTAL HEALTH IN UNIVERSITY STUDENTS DURING THE SARS-COV2 PANDEMIC

ABSTRACT

The pandemic caused by SARS-COV2, worldwide caused a sedentary lifestyle and damage to mental health in the general population, including university students, a sector that did not escape these adverse effects due to the pandemic. Therefore, the main aim of this research is to evaluate the levels of physical activity (PA) and mental health in university students during the COVID-19 coronavirus (SARS-COV2) pandemic. The DASS-21 scale, the Global Physical Activity Questionnaire (GPAQ) and the SF-36 Health Questionnaire were applied to 63 university students from the State of Veracruz, Mexico, aged 18 to 24 years. The data treatment was carried out in the statistical software SPSS v.25, the results showed that 76.2% of the sample was found in physically active levels, likewise the correlation coefficients made between physical activity (PA) and anxiety (r= -.41) physical activity (PA) and stress (r= -.42) showed negative correlations with moderate to intense magnitudes, respectively. Therefore, it is concluded that performing physical activity during the pandemic was shown to significantly reduce problems related to mental health in university students.