Association of physical activity and mental health symptoms to the academic performance of physical therapy students in Saudi Arabia: A cross-sectional study.

The majority of physical therapy students had low physical activity levels.

• 88.83% of participants had low physical activity levels
• Mean PARS-3 score was 11.16 ± 7.41
• Sample consisted of 600 undergraduate physical therapy students in Saudi Arabia
• Most participants were male (72.16%) and aged 18 to 22 years (89.83%)

A substantial proportion of students reported anxiety and depressive symptoms.

• 42.3% of participants reported mild or greater anxiety symptoms
• 63.2% reported mild or more serious depressive symptoms
• Mean GAD-7 score was 4.5 ± 4.30
• Mean PHQ-9 score was 6.87 ± 4.81

No significant associations were observed between physical activity, anxiety, or depressive symptom categories and GPA.

• PARS-3 categories showed no significant association with GPA
• GAD-7 categories showed no significant association with GPA
• PHQ-9 categories showed no significant association with GPA
• This finding held despite the high prevalence of both low physical activity and psychological distress in the sample

Older age was associated with lower odds of high academic performance in multivariate regression analysis.

• Being older was identified as an independent predictor negatively associated with high GPA
• Finding was identified through multivariate regression analysis
• The study sample was predominantly aged 18 to 22 years (89.83%)

Living with one's family significantly increased the odds of achieving a high GPA.

• Living with family was identified as a significant independent predictor of high academic performance in multivariate regression analysis
• This finding underscores the importance of social-context factors in student academic success
• The authors noted demographic and social-context factors should be considered when developing strategies to support student success