IMPACT OF EXERCISE TRAINING AND SLEEP ON CHILDREN STRESS PERCEPTION

Eleonora Pagani¹Gianluigi Oggionni²Luca Giovanelli^3*Anna Mariani³Giuseppina Bernardelli^2,4Daniela - Lucini^2,3

• ¹Faculty of Psychology, Catholic University of the Sacred Heart, Milan, Milan, Lombardy, Italy
• ²Sports and Exercise Medicine, Italian Auxological Institute (IRCCS), Milan, Lombardy, Italy
• ³Department of Medical Biotechnology and Translational Medicine, Faculty of Medicine and Surgery, University of Milan, Milan, Lombardy, Italy
• ⁴Department of Clinical and Community Sciences, Faculty of Medicine and Surgery, University of Milan, Milan, Lombardy, Italy

Background: A healthy lifestyle is nowadays considered a pillar in the prevention/treatment of chronic non-communicable diseases both in adulthood and childhood. Notably, it is also a prominent tool to foster well-being and manage stress, particularly at a young age when these two conditions play a fundamental role in determining present and future health Purpose: evaluate the link between stress perception and lifestyles, particularly exercise and sleep in children/adolescents and their parents, using a simple anonymous questionnaire Methods: Members of 50 families filled out an ad hoc simple anonymous questionnaire on lifestyle habits (exercise, sleep, nutrition, etc) and stress/health/performance perceptions. It was based on standardized instruments (IPAQ, AHA Healthy Diet Score), including objective indicators such as exercise volume, as well as self-developed ordinal evaluation scales ranging from 0 to 10 assessing subjective perceptions (e.g., health, stress, performance). Data regarding anthropometric, systolic, diastolic arterial pressure and heart rate were also collected. Results: in children/adolescents, stress perception negatively correlates with the volume of Moderate-Vigorous exercise and time dedicated to sleep. This latter also correlates positively with the perception of health and academic performance and negatively with the perception of fatigue, somatic symptoms and systolic arterial pressure percentiles. Considering data inserted by all the family members, we also observed interesting significant correlations between parents’ exercise habits, between parents’ perceptions of health and between parents’ perceptions of somatic symptoms and the perception of stress reported by their children. Conclusion: In this observational study, Exercise and good sleep hygiene might represent an important tool to counteract stress perception in youth, fostering present and future well-being and health. The possibility of collecting lifestyle data using a simple questionnaire close to simple clinical parameters may offer an opportunity to show an immediate picture of family members’ lifestyles which might motivate parents and Institutions to focus attention on the improvement of lifestyle components (in particular exercise and good sleep) instead that on only traditional risk factors (such as dyslipidemia, obesity, hypertension, smoke) to foster children/adolescent present well-being and prevent chronic non-communicable disease.