The purpose of this study was to examine whether physical activities were related to suicidal behaviors in gay, lesbian, and bisexual Korean adolescents. In 2015, 68,043 adolescents participated in the 11th Korea Youth Risk Behavior Web-Based Survey project. However, only 628 of these 68,043 participants provided enough information about their romantic and sexual behaviour to be categorized as gay or bisexual boys (n 5 430) or lesbian or bisexual girls (n 5 198).

The relationships between physical activities and suicidal behaviours were evaluated by multivariate logistic regression analysis after adjustment for covariate variables such as economic status of the family, mental stress, frequency of smoking, and frequency of drinking.

There were no significant relationships between muscle-strengthening exercises and the suicidal behaviour categories (seriously considered, planned, and attempted) both in gay or bisexual boys and in lesbian or bisexual girls. Additionally, there were no significant relationships between vigorous physical activity and the suicidal behaviour categories in gay or bisexual boys. However, there were a significant relationship between vigorous physical activity and suicidal behaviour categories in lesbian or bisexual girls. There were slightly significant relationships between light physical activity (walking) and suicidal behaviour both in gay or bisexual boys and in lesbian or bisexual girls.

We concluded that, for gay or bisexual boys, light physical activity might be associated with a reduced risk of suicidal behaviours. However, vigorous physical activity and muscle-strengthening exercises were not associated with suicidal behaviours. For lesbian or bisexual girls, vigorous physical activity might be associated with a reduced risk of suicidal behaviours. However, muscle-strengthening exercises had no association with suicidal behaviours.