Men and women choose moderate-to-vigorous physical activity and sedentary behaviors with a “hot” mind rather than a “cold” one | BMC Public Health

There is growing evidence that Various forms and doses of physical activity (PA) have been proven to be effective in the prevention of many chronic diseases[1,2,3,4], strengthening the immune system [5] improvement of mental health and well-being [6,7,8,9], lowering all-cause mortality risk [10,11,12,13], and increasing life expectancy [14, 15]. It has been clearly demonstrated that irrespective of physical activity, sedentary behavior is the risk factor of comorbidities [11, 16,17,18,19,20]. In addition, sedentary behavior (SB) has been shown to increase all-cause mortality risk in individuals with chronic diseases or high body mass index (BMI), whereas PA is likely to reduce this risk [20].

PA has a specific effect on various body functions as it has a nonlinear relationship with the intensity, duration, and load of muscle work [1, 3, 4, 12, 14, 20,21,22]. Moreover, individuals of different age, sex, health condition, and BMI experience different benefits of PA [3, 6, 11, 23,24,25,26]. For example, one of the recent systematic analyses showed that only in people aged > 50 years, moderate to intense PA (MVPA) improves cognition: this effect is weaker in people of other ages [6].

While the human health benefits of MVPA are well established, there is now ample evidence that both light PA and moderate PA (MPA) (important for minimizing SB) are also highly beneficial in strengthening and maintaining a person’s health [3, 4, 19, 20]. For example, increasing the dose of low-intensity PA from 3 to 7 h per day, regardless of MVPA, reduced mortality rates in adults and the elderly [27].

According to almost 2 million reports, physical inactivity of Europeans, both men and women, increased significantly from 2001 to 2016 [27]. Physical activity (PA) choices involve decision-making influenced by various interrelated factors, including demographic characteristics, health behaviors, overall health, social and environmental factors, and psychological determinants relevant to intervention strategies [28,29,30]. Moreover, our recent research clearly shows that some individuals are more physically active during and after work, while others accumulate higher levels of physical activity during leisure time and on weekends. Those who were more active in their leisure time exhibited better health, improved mood, and higher happiness levels [31, 32]. However, the causal relationship remains unclear—whether happier individuals with better mood and health tend to be more physically active on weekends, or whether those who are less active during weekends may negatively impact their health, mood, and happiness.

Although there are new World Health Organization recommendations for PA [4], a number of uncertainties remain, such as how PA depends on various sociodemographic factors such as gender, age, and ethnicity [33]. In addition, it is necessary to clarify how health is affected by PA in different domains (e.g., the subject’s leisure choice, occupation, education, being at home, and/or while commuting to work) and the amount of PA [33]. Human decisions are influenced both by rational and logical thought processes (explicit knowledge), and by emotional intelligence (EI) and impulsivity (implicit knowledge) [34, 35].

Thus, physical activity choices can be both rational, deliberate, and logical—driven by “cold” reasoning (“cold” mind)—or more emotional, intuitive, quick, and impulsive, known as “hot” decision-making. Our previous research indicates that physical activity is more closely associated with emotional intelligence than with logical thinking [36, 37]. To date, we have not found studies that explore how MVPA and SB are influenced not only by sociodemographic, healthy lifestyle, and health indicators but also by “cold” (logical thinking/cognitive reflection) and “hot” thinking (emotional intelligence, impulsivity).

The study set two primary objectives. The first is to identify differences between men and women in sociodemographic factors, health, healthy lifestyle, physical activity levels, sedentary behavior, emotional intelligence, impulsivity, logical thinking, and stress indicators. The second objective is to apply linear regression analysis to investigate how moderate-intensity physical activity (MPA), vigorous-intensity physical activity (VPA), moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA), and sedentary behavior in men and women are associated with age, education, psychological factors (cognitive reflection, emotional intelligence, impulsivity, perceived stress), health behaviors (overeating, breakfast consumption, smoking, alcohol use), body mass index (BMI), and sleep duration. Our main hypothesis is that physical activity (MVPA) is directly related to cognitive reflection and emotional intelligence, while sedentary behavior (SB) is inversely related to these factors. Conversely, SB is directly associated with perceived stress and impulsivity, while MVPA is inversely associated. In other words, higher emotional intelligence, stronger logical thinking, lower perceived stress, and reduced impulsivity are expected to lead individuals to recognize the benefits of physical activity and the risks of prolonged sitting, encouraging a more active, less sedentary lifestyle. Additionally, we expect that physically active individuals will adopt healthier behaviors (such as eating healthily, avoiding smoking and overeating) and experience better sleep quality. Furthermore, BMI is anticipated to be a strong determinant of physical activity—higher BMI is expected to be associated with lower MVPA and increased sedentary time.