Cardiorespiratory Fitness and level of Perceived Stress in Exercising and Non-Exercising Physical Therapy Students: Single Centered Survey

Objective: To assess cardiorespiratory fitness and perceived stress level and to measure the correlation between them in exercising and non-exercising physical therapy students.           Methods: A Descriptive Cross-sectional study was conducted at Lahore Medical and Dental College for a duration of almost six months from April 2019 to October 2019. A total of 240 students from 1st year to final year LCPT students were enrolled in the study. The subjects were categorized into two groups on the basis of inclusion and exclusion criteria. Non-Probability Convenient sampling utilized as a sampling technique. Cardiorespiratory fitness was assessed by using the Modified Harvard Step test and the level of the Perceived Stress was measured by Perceived Stress Scale questionnaire. Data analyses were carried out using SPSS 22 and results were presented in the form of Mean and Standard deviation.  Results: A significantly higher degree of cardiorespiratory fitness was found in Group A(exercising) compared to Group B(non-exercising) (p<0.05) and significantly lower level of perceived stress was found in Group A as compared to Group B (p<0.05). Bivariate analysis indicates a moderate, negative correlation between Physical fitness index (PFI) and Perceived stress (p<0.01; r= -o.65).         Conclusion: The current study concluded that the Exercising group showed better cardiorespiratory fitness and lower perceived stress as compared to the Non-exercising group. Cardiorespiratory fitness and perceived stress showed a highly significant correlation, which is moderate in strength and inversely proportional. This means that as cardiorespiratory fitness increases, the level of perceived stress decreases.