Correlations between psychological measures of wellbeing, physical activity, and GPA in graduate health professions students: a pilot and feasibility study

Introduction Graduate student wellbeing is a critical concern related to academic success and burnout on college campuses. The purpose of this study was to examine how measures of psychological wellbeing correlate with physical activity and academic success in graduate health professions students. Methods This pilot study sampled healthy graduate health professions students enrolled in Occupational Therapy, Physical Therapy, and Physician Assistant programs at a metropolitan-based university. Participants completed a one-time electronic survey including demographic data, self-reported grade point average (GPA), self-reported physical activity, and a series of standardized measures on constructs of psychological wellbeing (optimism, resilience, general self-efficacy, academic self-efficacy, self-efficacy to regulate exercise, mindfulness, life satisfaction and stress). Demographic data were analyzed with descriptive statistics while Spearman correlational analyses were used to investigate relationships between measures of psychological wellbeing, physical activity, and GPA. Results Surveys were completed by 19% (68/350) of invited students. Participants were primarily female 86.7% (59/68) and white 91.2% (62/68). Correlational analyses revealed the following significant positive correlations: (1) vigorous physical activity and self-efficacy to regulate exercise (ρ = 0.508, p ≤ 0.001); (2) moderate physical activity and self-efficacy to regulate exercise (ρ = 0.302, p = 0.039); (3) walking and optimism (ρ = 0.293, p = 0.032), mindfulness (ρ = 0.466, p 0.001), resilience (ρ = 0.306, p = 0.026), and academic self-efficacy (ρ = 0.338, p = 0.014); (4) A significant negative correlation was found between perceived stress and graduate GPA (ρ = −0.286, p = 0.018). Discussion The results of this pilot study suggest walking is correlated to several measures of psychological wellbeing in graduate health professions students. These pilot study findings are critical for better understanding of wellbeing in graduate health professions students and how wellbeing may relate to physical activity and academic success. Additionally, these findings provide insight into recruitment challenges regarding graduate students and interpretation of these data is limited by self-selection bias, potentially missing students who face the greatest challenges to their wellbeing.