Moderate physical activity is associated with lower depression, anxiety and stress in health-care workers during the COVID-19 pandemic

Health-care workers are in high risk for COVID-19 and may experience associated mental health disturbances. Although physical activity (PA) has positive effects on mental disturbances, it has not been fully investigated in health-team during COVID-19 pandemic. Therefore, we analyzed depression, anxiety and stress in health-care workers, and their relationship with PA before and during a COVID-19 peak. Retrospective cohort study. PA (IPAQ short-form) evaluated and associated with depression, anxiety and stress (DAAS-21) at the beginning of COVID-19 first wave in Mexico (April 2020) in 1146 workers of a tertiary-care hospital, and in a subsequent occasion at the first wave peak (July–August/2020) in 311 workers (from the first ones). Data collected from routine surveillance. Depression increased 9%, anxiety 15%, and stress 10% at the pandemic peak. Subjects with higher frequency of baseline moderate PA showed lower severity of depression, anxiety and stress at the peak (p