Do Worry and Brooding Predict Health Behaviors? A Daily Diary Investigation.

BACKGROUND: Meta-analyses have reported associations between perseverative cognition (both worry and brooding) and increased engagement in health-risk behaviors, poorer sleep, and poorer physiological health outcomes. METHOD: Using a daily diary design, this study investigated the within- and between-person relationships between state and trait perseverative cognition and health behaviors (eating behavior, physical activity, alcohol consumption, and sleep) both cross-sectionally and prospectively. Participants (n = 273, 93% students, Mage = 20.2, SD = 4.11, 93% female) completed morning and evening diaries across 7 consecutive days. RESULTS: Multilevel modeling analyses revealed that, cross-sectionally, higher levels of state worry were associated with more time spent sitting and higher levels of state brooding predicted less daily walking. CONCLUSION: Worry and brooding may represent useful intervention targets for improving inactivity and walking levels, respectively.

The association between worry and rumination with sleep in non-clinical populations: a systematic review and meta-analysis.

Associations have been found between perseverative cognition (PC: worry and rumination) and somatic markers of ill-health. Further studies have reported associations between sleep and both PC and poorer health. As such, sleep disturbance may represent a pathway between PC and ill-health. Therefore, studies assessing the relationship between PC and sleep in non-clinical populations were synthesised. Meta-analyses (k = 55) revealed small- to medium-sized associations between higher PC and poorer sleep quality (SQ, r = -0.28), shorter total sleep time (TST, r = -0.15) and longer sleep onset latency (SOL, r = -0.16). Variations included associations between SQ and rumination (r = -.33) and worry (r = -.23). Associations were stronger in studies measuring SQ via self-report rather than actigraphy, and where SOL and TST outcomes were cross-sectional. Associations with SOL were stronger when outcomes were from non-diary studies and when trait, rather than state PC, was measured, but weaker where studies incorporated more measures of PC. Effect sizes were generally larger where studies were higher quality and being female may act as a protective factor between PC and longer SOL. Therefore, there is a consistent association between PC and sleep which may partially explain the link between PC and ill-health.