Relationship between physical activity and specific working memory indicators of depressive symptoms in university students

BACKGROUND The detection rate of depression among university students has been increasing in recent years, becoming one of the main psychological diseases that endangers their physical and mental health. According to statistics, self-harm and suicide, for which there is no effective intervention, are the second leading causes of death. AIM To explore the relationship between different elements and levels of physical activity and college students’ depression-symptom-specific working memory indicators. METHODS Of 143 college students were analyzed using the Beck Depression Self-Rating Scale, the Physical Activity Rating Scale, and the Working Memory Task. RESULTS There was a significant difference between college students with depressive symptoms and healthy college students in completing verbal and spatial working memory (SWM) tasks correctly (all P < 0.01). Physical Activity Scale-3 scores were significantly and positively correlated with the correct rate of the verbal working memory task (r = 0.166) and the correct rate of the SWM task (r = 0.210) (all P < 0.05). There were significant differences in the correct rates of verbal and SWM tasks according to different exercise intensities (all P < 0.05) and different exercise durations (all P < 0.05), and no significant differences in the correct rates of verbal and SWM tasks by exercise frequency (all P > 0.05). CONCLUSION An increase in physical exercise among college students, particularly medium- and high-intensity exercise and exercise of 30 min or more, can improve the correct rate of completing working memory tasks.