Is there an association between psychological distress during early adulthood and later trajectories of physical activity during adulthood? Longitudinal data from two cohort studies.

Background: Our aim was to analyse the prospective association between psychological distress during early adulthood and physical activity trajectories between early and middle adulthood.

Methods: We used data from the 1958 National Child Development Study (NCDS) (n=8994, 4388 women) and the 1970 British Cohort Study (BCS) (n=7014, 4388 women). Psychological distress was assessed using the Malaise inventory at 23 years in the 1958 NCDS and at 26 years at the 1970 BCS. Self-report leisure-time physical activity (LTPA) was assessed at 33 years, 42 years, 46 years, 50 years and 55 years in the 1958 NCDS as well as at 30 years, 34 years, 42 years and 46 years in the 1970 BCS. We created physical activity trajectories, using latent class growth analysis. Poisson regression analysis was used for association.

Results: We identified three trajectories of physical activity during adulthood in both cohorts. Participants with psychological distress at 23 years were less likely to be in the persistently high trajectory (RR_adjusted: 0.79; 95% CI 0.64 to 0.98) in the 1958 NCDS. In addition, participants with psychological distress at 26 years were less likely to be in the increased LTPA (0.73; 0.59 to 0.89) and persistently high (0.59; 0.50 to 0.69) trajectories, comparing with participants without psychological distress.

Conclusion: Elevated psychological distress during early adulthood is associated with a lower probability of adopting positive trajectories of LTPA during adulthood.