Associations between different intensities of leisure-time physical activity and subsequent psychotropic medication use among young and early midlife adults: a register-linked follow-up study

Vigorous leisure-time physical activity (VPA) in 19–39-year-old City of Helsinki employees is linked to a lower hazard of first psychotropic medication purchase (HR 0.79 for 5 vs 0 hours/week).

• Why it matters: Prior work has not tested whether the intensity of leisure-time physical activity predicts later psychotropic medication purchasing, leaving uncertainty about which activity levels matter.
• What they did: Using Helsinki Health Study questionnaire data from 2017 and register-linked psychotropic medication purchases from 2014–2022 (n=4,160), Cox models with restricted cubic splines estimated nonlinear associations for weekly light, moderate, and vigorous activity.
• The result: VPA showed clear support after age- and gender-adjustment (overall p<0.001; nonlinearity p<0.001), but the association was attenuated with further adjustment and stratification by prior purchase status (overall p=0.0041).

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