Accepted for/Published in: Journal of Medical Internet Research
Date Submitted: May 25, 2021
Date Accepted: Jul 14, 2021
Date Submitted to PubMed: Aug 3, 2021
Online-Delivered Group and Personal Exercise Programs to Support Low Active Older Adults’ Mental Health During the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Randomized Controlled Trial
ABSTRACT
Background:
In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, experts in mental health science emphasized the importance of developing and evaluating approaches to support and maintain the mental health of older adults.
Objective:
To assess whether a group-based exercise program relative to a personal exercise program (both delievered online) and wait-list control (WLC) can improve the psychological health of previously low active older adults during the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Methods:
The Seniors COvid-19 Pandemic and Exercise (SCOPE) Trial was a 3-arm, parallel randomized controlled trial conducted between May and September 2020 in which low active older adults (aged ≥ 65 years) were randomized to one of two 12-week exercise programs or a waitlist control condition. 241 older adults (n= 187 women) provided baseline measures, were randomized, and completed measures every two weeks for the duration of the trial. The trial’s primary outcome was psychological flourishing. Secondary outcomes included global measures of mental and physical health, life satisfaction and depression symptoms.
Results:
The results of latent growth modeling revealed no intervention effects for flourishing, life satisfaction, or depression symptoms. Significant intervention effects for both group-based and personal exercise programs when compared to the WLC were identified for global mental health, and improvements in physical health were also found for the group-based condition when compared to the WLC.
Conclusions:
There were no intervention effects for the trial’s primary outcome, psychological flourishing. However, the intervention effects for mental and physical health point to the potential capacity of low-cost and scalable at-home programs to support the mental and physical health of previously inactive adults in the COVID-19 pandemic. Clinical Trial: ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT04412343
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