Relationship between physical activity, screen-related sedentary behaviors and anxiety among adolescents in less developed areas of China

This study aimed to explore the association between physical activity, screen-related sedentary behaviors, and anxiety. The current study used latent profile analysis (LPA) to identify homogenous subtypes of anxiety among adolescents in less-developed areas of China. Data were aggregated from 6 schools in the less-developed areas of China in September 2018. In total, 900 students were evaluated using the 100-item Mental Health Test (MHT) and Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance System (YRBSS) questionnaire. The LPA was conducted to explore the potential classification of anxiety, which makes full use of all the sample data and explore heterogeneous classifications within groups. Logistic regression was used for the multifactor analysis. A P value <.05 was considered statistically significant. The entropy value suggested that the model with 3 latent profile was the best choice. There were 223 adolescents in the severe anxiety group, accounting for 24.78%. Logistics regression analysis of anxiety revealed that the risk of severe anxiety in boys was lower (odds ratio [OR] = 0.317, P < .001) than in girls. Students had a significantly lower probability of suffering from severe anxiety in using cellphones or computers ≤ 2 hours/day than those used cellphones or computers＞2 hours/day (OR = 0.391, P = .004). Decreasing screen-related sedentary behaviors should be a target of community and school-based interventions, because high screen-related sedentary behaviors were associated with higher odds of anxiety among adolescents in less developed area of China.