People who are more fearful of the physical and emotional symptoms of anxiety tend to be less active, according to new research published in the Journal of Health Psychology. The study employed wrist-worn accelerometers to objectively measure physical activity and sedentary behavior.
“I became interested in understanding factors that influence exercise behavior after seeing the startling statistics noting almost half of American adults do not meet minimum weekly recommendations for exercise despite the significant physical and mental health benefits it provides,” explained study author Bridget A. Hearon, an assistant professor of psychology at Albright College.
“I was also struck by patients that I saw in clinical practice who described exercise as a torturous experience or simply reported not experiencing any of the positive benefits like feeling better physically, stress reduction, having a sense of accomplishment etc. That made me want to understand why some people have such a positive experience when they exercise while others are left wondering what all the fuss is about!”
In the study, 64 young adults completed an assessment of anxiety sensitivity along with a “Big Five” personality questionnaire before wearing an accelerometer to measure their movement for one week. The researchers found that anxiety sensitivity was negatively associated with physical activity. In other words, people with a greater fear of experiencing anxiety arousal tended to have reduced levels of activity.
“I hope the results provide some validation to those who have tried to incorporate regular exercise into their routine but continue to find it unpleasant. Anxiety sensitivity, or the fear of symptoms commonly associated with anxiety such as increased heart rate, racing thoughts, shortness of breath, may be the reason this is the case for some of these individuals,” Hearon told PsyPost.
“The good news is that anxiety sensitivity can be lowered pretty quickly with behavioral treatment that can include systematic exposure to the unpleasant sensations like sweating or shortness of breath, or tailored exercise programs that can help gradually decrease this sensitivity.”
A previous meta-analysis of 64 studies with 88,400 participants found that the personality traits openness, conscientiousness and extraversion were linked to increased physical activity, while neuroticism was linked to reduced activity. Agreeableness, on the other hand, was unrelated to physical activity.
However, the new study found that only agreeableness was associated with physical activity. The inconsistent results could be due to that fact that previous research has relied on self-reported activity.
“I would like to highlight the importance of using objective measurement in exercise research. Although our findings related to anxiety sensitivity were consistent with previous studies using self-report, our findings related to Big Five personality traits were not consistent with a huge body of literature in this area that has largely relied on self-reported exercise. This suggest more studies using objective measurement are needed,” Hearon explained.
The new study — like all research — includes some limitations as well. Despite trying to recruit participants from the larger community, the researchers ended up with a sample that consisted of individuals between the ages of 18 and 22.
“Our sample was largely undergraduate students. It will be important to replicate these findings in a sample with greater diversity of age,” Hearon said.
“Although not the case in our study, other investigations of anxiety sensitivity and exercise avoidance have noted an association between this construct and higher BMI. Since our sample was mainly young adults, it would be interesting to perform a longitudinal study to determine whether elevated anxiety sensitivity at this stage predicts decreased exercise, and subsequent weight gain over time.”
The study, “Not the exercise type? Personality traits and anxiety sensitivity as predictors of objectively measured physical activity and sedentary time“, was authored by Bridget A. Hearon and Thomas J Harrison.