Self-reported walking in public places and outdoor sports were associated with lower PSS scores in unadjusted comparisons, but none of the three broad outdoor activity measures were independently associated with high perceived stress after adjustment for country and sociodemographic and health-related factors.
Respondents who agreed they walked in public places had lower mean perceived stress scores than those who disagreed in unadjusted analyses.
Respondents who agreed they engaged in outdoor sports such as running or cycling had lower mean perceived stress scores than those who disagreed in unadjusted analyses.
Respondents who agreed they walked in their neighborhood had a slightly higher mean perceived stress score than those who disagreed, in the opposite direction to the other activity types.
After multivariable adjustment, none of the three outdoor activity measures were independently associated with high perceived stress.
The study design and activity measurement approach limit causal interpretation of the findings.
This research examined whether different types of outdoor physical activity — walking in public places, walking in one's neighborhood, and outdoor sports like running or cycling — were related to perceived stress levels during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic among people in Poland and Italy. Participants completed surveys that included the Perceived Stress Scale (PSS) and indicated whether they engaged in each type of outdoor activity. When the researchers looked at the raw data without accounting for other factors, people who walked in public places or did outdoor sports reported slightly lower stress scores than those who did not. Interestingly, people who walked in their neighborhood reported slightly higher stress scores than non-neighborhood walkers, though the difference was small. However, when the researchers accounted for other factors such as country of residence, sociodemographic characteristics, and health-related variables, none of the three outdoor activity types were independently linked to higher or lower stress. This suggests that the initial differences in stress scores may have been explained by these other variables rather than by outdoor activity itself. This research suggests that the relationship between outdoor physical activity and stress during the pandemic is more complex than a simple connection, and that broad questions about whether people engage in outdoor activities may not capture enough detail to detect meaningful associations. Because the study only measured whether people agreed they did an activity — not how often, how long, or how intensely — and because it captured a single point in time, it cannot determine whether outdoor activity caused changes in stress or vice versa. Future studies using more detailed activity measures and longitudinal designs would be needed to better understand this relationship.
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Upload Your LabsGrabowski J, Stępień J, Waszak P, Michalski T, Meloni R, Grabkowska M, et al.. (2026). Self-Reported Outdoor Activities and Perceived Stress During the First COVID-19 Wave: A Cross-Sectional Study in Poland and Italy.. Medicina (Kaunas, Lithuania). https://doi.org/10.3390/medicina62081564