Correlations between muscle strength and psychological health in Chinese adolescents: a cross-sectional analysis

Jinkui Lu; Hao Sun; Ningling Liu; Jianhua Qiu; Xiaofei Xia

doi:10.7717/peerj.14133

Correlations between muscle strength and psychological health in Chinese adolescents: a cross-sectional analysis

PeerJ. 2022 Oct 6:10:e14133. doi: 10.7717/peerj.14133. eCollection 2022.

Authors

Jinkui Lu¹, Hao Sun², Ningling Liu¹, Jianhua Qiu¹, Xiaofei Xia¹

Affiliations

¹ School of Physical Education, Shangrao Normal University, Shangrao, China.
² College of Physical Education, Jiangxi Normal University, Nanchang, China.

Abstract

Background: Studies indicate that muscle strength is associated with good mental health. However, it remains unclear whether muscle strength is directly correlated with psychological symptoms in Chinese adolescents. Given the declining muscle strength and worrying mental health status of Chinese adolescents, the present study aimed to estimate the correlation between muscle strength and psychological symptoms as well as explore the gender differences in those correlations in Chinese adolescents.

Method: From April to July 2018, a total of 14,344 Chinese adolescents from eight provinces were selected using a stratified clustered sampling method. Psychological symptoms were evaluated using the Multidimensional Sub-health Questionnaire of Adolescents (MSQA), a verified and validated questionnaire that assesses three psychological areas: emotional symptoms, behavioral symptoms, and social adaptation difficulties. Muscle strength was assessed using grip strength, sit-ups, and standing long jump. The Chi-square test was used to compare the detection rates of the different categories of psychological symptoms. A logistic regression analysis was used to analyze the correlations between muscle strength and psychological symptoms and explore the gender differences in those correlations in Chinese adolescents.

Results: In general, the detection rate of psychological symptoms for Chinese adolescents was 21.39%. Males had a higher detection rate of psychological symptoms (22.12%) than females (20.66%, p < 0.05). Psychological symptoms were present in significantly fewer Chinese adolescents with a muscle strength index >P75 (19.26%) than among Chinese adolescents with a muscle strength index ≤P25 (23.00%) (χ² = 23.417, p < 0.01). Compared with females, the OR values for males in most groups were over one (OR = 1.04-1.43), indicating that males have a higher risk of psychological symptoms than females.

Conclusions: The psychological symptom detection rate of Chinese adolescents is correlated with muscle strength. Psychological symptoms were more correlated to muscle strength in males than in females. The significance of the present study lies in the important insights for integrated mental and physical fitness intervention strategies that promote muscle strength and psychological symptoms simultaneously.

Keywords: Chinese adolescents; Correlational analysis; Mental health; Muscle strength; Psychological symptoms.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

Adolescent
China
Cross-Sectional Studies
Female
Humans
Male
Mental Health*
Muscle Strength
Physical Fitness

Grants and funding

The research is supported by the 2017 national general project of the 13th five-year plan of the National Education Science: Research on Rural School Development (1949-2017) (NO. bha170138). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.