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.
