035-23 – The Effect of Exercise on Stress Reactivity to Public Speaking Assessments in University Students: A Within-Subject Design

Reported mental health issues in university students are on the rise, with UCAS reporting a 450% increase between 2011 and 2020. Academic pressures are major stressors, in particular public speaking assessments, with 80% of students reporting that oral presentations were a source of social anxiety impacting on learning and well-being. Therefore, it is important to explore potential stress buffers to help students manage their anxiety of public speaking. Previous studies have shown that exercise can significantly reduce stress perception in university students. Therefore, the present study aimed to investigate the effect of an acute exercise intervention on university students’ stress levels to two of their oral presentation assessments. It is hypothesised that students will experience reduced stress responses as a result of the exercise intervention. We used a crossover design where students carried out three high-intensity interval training (HIIT) sessions in the week prior to one of the presentations (intervention condition); in the other presentation, students were asked to carry out their regular exercise routines, and to refrain from exercise the day before the assessment (control condition). Salivary samples were taken immediately before, immediately after, 20 minutes after, and at 5:00 pm on the evening of the oral presentation. Baseline cortisol samples were also taken a week prior to the assessment, 30 minutes after waking and at 5:00 pm for comparison. Samples were immediately frozen at -20oC until further analysis and salivary cortisol was quantified by competitive ELISA. Additionally, self-reported mood and anxiety were recorded using questionnaires. Cortisol concentrations and self-report data will be compared between the exercise and non-exercise conditions. We will explore associations between stress responses to public speaking assessments and other participant characteristics such as sex/gender, amount of sleep, and physical activity levels.