IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jmerit/v4y2024i3p17-250d1437195.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Assessing the Relationship between Physical Activity and Depression in Lawyers and Law Professionals: A Cross-Sectional Study

Author

Listed:
  • Chapman Cox

    (Rocky Mountain Center for Occupational & Environmental Health, University of Utah Health, Salt Lake City, UT 84111, USA)

  • Matthew S. Thiese

    (Rocky Mountain Center for Occupational & Environmental Health, University of Utah Health, Salt Lake City, UT 84111, USA)

  • Joseph A. Allen

    (Rocky Mountain Center for Occupational & Environmental Health, University of Utah Health, Salt Lake City, UT 84111, USA)

Abstract

Background: Law professionals are understudied, and little is known about their mental health. This cross-sectional study aimed to assess the relationship between the amount of physical activity and depressive symptoms. Methods: A sample of 681 law professionals completed a survey that assessed mental health conditions and activities to promote well-being. Crude and adjusted odds ratios (ORs) and 95% confidence interval (95% CI) were calculated for the relationship between the number of days of an hour or more of physical activity and two levels of depression from the patient health questionnaire-9 (PHQ-9). Results: Law professionals were found to have significantly more depressive symptoms, mild or worse and moderate or worse, when reporting 0 days of physical activity when compared to 7 days, with OR of 6.07 (95% CI 2.55–14.48) and 8.64 (95% CI 1.97–37.82) and adjusted ORs of 3.91 (95% CI 1.58–9.68) and 6.32 (95% CI 1.4–28.33), respectively. A dose response was also noted. Conclusions: There was a statistically significant relationship found between amounts of physical activity and depressive symptoms in law professionals. We recommend future research be conducted to better understand this relationship.

Suggested Citation

  • Chapman Cox & Matthew S. Thiese & Joseph A. Allen, 2024. "Assessing the Relationship between Physical Activity and Depression in Lawyers and Law Professionals: A Cross-Sectional Study," Merits, MDPI, vol. 4(3), pages 1-13, July.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jmerit:v:4:y:2024:i:3:p:17-250:d:1437195
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2673-8104/4/3/17/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2673-8104/4/3/17/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jmerit:v:4:y:2024:i:3:p:17-250:d:1437195. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.