Abstract
Stress reduction has many positive health implications, and physical activity has been consistently shown to be a mechanism to reduce stress. Many studies that demonstrate a connection between physical activity and stress focus on the long-term effects. More recent research suggests stress changes on a day-to-day basis, yet little work has investigated the benefits of physical activity to alleviate daily stress. The current study explores this short-term relationship between physical activity and stress. One hundred and twenty-two participants ranging in age from 22 to 94 participated in this seven day study. Participants were asked to wear an activity monitor to measure the amount of physical activity they engage in per day. They also reported the amount of time spent in vigorous, moderate, and light physical activity as a self-reported physical activity measure. Each day, subjects also took the Daily Inventory of Stressful Events to measure their perception of daily stressors. This is a correlational study that explores the relationship of daily objective and self-reported physical activity and stress, and whether these associations differ by age and educational level. We conducted multiple regression models \r in which we regressed stress (overall and by specific domain) on objective physical activity (Model A), self-reported physical activity (Model B), and both measures of physical activity (Model C), as well as age, education, their interactions with exercise, and other covariates. We found that older age was associated with lower numbers of work and argument stressors, as well as lower severity of stressors in those domains. We did not find relationships between education and numbers or severity of stressors. We did not find consistent relationships between physical activity (objective or self-reported) and stress across all participants; however, there were interactions with education and physical activity in relation to stress. The relationship between physical activity and the number of argument stressors was found primarily for those with higher levels of education. The discussion considers the implications of the findings and suggests directions for future research.