Women
who are afraid of their intimate partners are significantly more likely to
engage in regular exercise, the study suggested.
If you see someone hitting
the gym more often than usual, she might not just be chasing fitness goals – she
could be trying to cope with fear at home.
That is
the provocative insight from a new study which analysed
data from over 5,000 women in Kenya.
According to
researchers, women who were afraid of their intimate partners were
significantly more likely to engage in regular exercise, suggesting
that physical activity may be more than just a health habit; it may be a
psychological lifeline.
“Women
who were most of the time afraid of their partner had a 47 per cent higher likelihood of engaging in exercise compared to those who
were never afraid,” they said in a study published in the Journal of
Health, Population and Nutrition.
Even after
accounting for variables such as age, education, and exposure to media, this
association remained statistically significant.
“Contrary to the
expectation that relational fear may restrict autonomy and limit
health-promoting behaviours, the findings suggest that women experiencing
relational fear might use
exercise as a coping mechanism.,” the authors said.
No previously published study has attempted to assess the potential association between fear of a partner and Kenyan women’s
exercising habits.
“To fill
this significant knowledge gap, we examined whether
there was an association between relational fear and
women’s engagement in exercise,” they said.
Their paper is titled,
“Fear of intimate partner and women’s engagement in exercise: insights from a national
survey in Kenya.”
They authors – all Ghanian – used data from the 2022 Kenya Demographic and Health Survey,
focusing on women aged 15–49 who responded to questions about both their exercise habits and
their fear of partners. Researchers classified women into three categories:
“never afraid,” “sometimes afraid,” and “most of the time afraid.”
Among the
women who were most afraid of their partners, 80.3 per cent reported engaging in exercise, compared to 76.1 per cent of those who were never afraid. And more than half (59.6 per cent) of all respondents reported exercising at least three times per
week.
The authors
propose that this unexpected correlation may reflect an emotional survival
strategy.
The 2022 KDHS showed a growing pattern of violence in
Kenya, indicating
that more than 40 per cent of women have endured physical or sexual intimate partner
violence in their lifetime.
The authors of the current study explained their findings
using the Stress
and Coping Theory, which says that individuals employ various strategies, including health-promoting behaviors like
exercise, to cope with stressors.
“Exercise may
be serving as a coping mechanism,” they said, “providing
a temporary sense of peace or empowerment in situations where other forms of
control or escape are limited.”
They further explained: “As an emotion-focused strategy,
exercise helps to regulate mood, reduce anxiety, and improve self-efficacy. As
such, women in fear-driven relationships might turn to exercise to mitigate the
psychological toll of their experiences.”
In effect,
these women might not be running from something, but through it.
However, the study also found that higher levels of education and media
exposure were associated with increased exercise rates.
Women with
higher education had up to 90 per cent higher odds of exercising
compared to those with no formal education. Exposure to media – television,
radio, or newspapers –was also a strong predictor. “Women exposed to media have a 47 per cent higher likelihood of exercising than those who lacked such
exposure,” the paper noted.
Age played a
role too. Women aged 45 to 49 were the most likely to exercise regularly. Researchers
speculated this could reflect heightened health awareness during menopause,
when risk for non-communicable diseases (NCDs) such as
diabetes and hypertension increases.
But the study
does not paint an entirely intuitive picture. Wealthier women, who
typically have better access to gyms and leisure time, are
actually less
likely to exercise.
“Despite the
high access to resources,” the paper says, “wealthier women are likely to have
more sedentary occupations, greater reliance on vehicles, or reduced need for
physically demanding daily activities.”
The study
acknowledges limitations: it could not establish causality, and
self-reported data might be affected by social desirability bias. The
researchers also could not determine whether the fear was due to physical violence,
emotional abuse, or coercive control, only that it
existed.
Still, the
implications are significant. “Understanding how relational fear impacts
exercise engagement,” the authors explained, “is
essential for informing public health interventions. These insights could guide
targeted interventions that address both psychological well-being and physical
activity within the context of intimate partner relationships.”
So the next
time you see a woman pushing through her limits on a treadmill or religiously
jogging at dawn, she may not just be chasing strength. She might be reclaiming control
over her life, one stride at a time.