None listed
Conditions
Brief summary
There are currently no specific guidelines for exercise and mental health conditions, rather the general guidelines to maintain health (150 minutes of moderate intensity exercise per week) is recommended. However, we don’t know whether a higher volume of exercise is required to better manage symptoms. This research project aims to answer the question ‘what volume of exercise is required to decrease symptoms of depression, anxiety, and stress in tertiary students?’ We hypothesise that a higher volume of exercise will improve symptoms of depression, anxiety and/or stress to a greater extent than a lower volume of exercise. Tertiary level students aged 18 years and older, who have completed >1 year of study, exercise <150 minutes per week, and have mild to moderate depression, anxiety and/or stress symptoms will be invited to participate. Participants will be asked to complete a 90-minute initial assessment consisting of initial screening and the Depression, Anxiety and Stress 21-item Scale (DASS-21) to determine depression, anxiety and stress levels and study eligibility. If eligible to continue, a treadmill test, quality of life survey, perceived stress scale and an arm and leg strength test, along with resting blood pressure, heart rate, height, weight, body mass index and waist circumference will also be performed. Participants will then be randomly allocated to one of two groups (150-minute or 300-minute exercise group). Participants will be asked to complete two 60-minute supervised exercise sessions consisting of aerobic and resistance training each week. The remaining 30 or 180 minutes of exercise (dependent upon group allocation) will be unsupervised and self-reported using an adapted Godin Leisure Time Exercise Questionnaire. Following the six week intervention, participants will attend a 90-minute post-intervention assessment to conduct the same tests performed during the initial assessment, to determine intervention effect. All supervised sessions and testing will be provided free of charge. The results of this study will provide evidence as to the effect that higher volumes of exercise have on mild to moderate depression and anxiety symptoms, which could help to inform exercise prescription in this population.
Interventions
Participants will be asked to complete a 90-minute initial assessment consisting of initial screening and the Depression, Anxiety and Stress 21-item Scale (DASS-21) to determine depression, anxiety and stress levels and study eligibility. If eligible to continue, a treadmill test, quality of life survey, perceived stress scale and an arm and leg strength test, along with resting blood pressure, heart rate, height, weight, body mass index and waist circumference will also be performed. Participan
Participants will be asked to complete a 90-minute initial assessment consisting of initial screening and the Depression, Anxiety and Stress 21-item Scale (DASS-21) to determine depression, anxiety and stress levels and study eligibility. If eligible to continue, a treadmill test, quality of life survey, perceived stress scale and an arm and leg strength test, along with resting blood pressure, heart rate, height, weight, body mass index and waist circumference will also be performed. Participants will then be randomly allocated to one of two groups (150-minute or 300-minute exercise group). Participants will be asked to complete two 60-minute supervised exercise sessions consisting of moderate intensity aerobic and resistance training each week. This could include aerobic exercises such as treadmill walking/jogging, cycling or rowing and resistance exercises that work the large muscles of the body such as squats/leg press, calf raises, standing row, triceps extensions and bicep curls. These sessions will be supervised by an accredited exercise scientist and/or an accredited exercise physiologist at an instructor to participant ratio of 1:10. Group size will be limited to a maximum of 20 participants during the supervised sessions. Intensity will be determined using heart rate and a Borg 6-20 rating of perceived exertion scale. Attendance at the supervised sessions will be documented on each individual's gym program, which will document all exercises undertaken that day. Two days (48 hours) will be scheduled between the supervised exercise sessions, as these include resistance training. The remaining 30 or 180 minutes of exercise (dependent upon group allocation) will be unsupervised and self-reported using an adapted Godin Leisure Time Exercise Questionnaire. Participants will be provided with examples of how to structure their unsupervised exercise sessions (i.e. 30-40 minutes of walking for the five days of unsupervised exercise), however it will be up to the participant's own discretion as to the type of activity and duration of activity they complete, up to their allocated weekly minutes. Participants will also be informed that they can undertake moderate intensity aerobic exercise daily without any rest days required, however if they undertake resistance training unsupervised, this should be for no more than 1 session and they should allow 2 days (48 hours) between the unsupervised resistance session and the two supervised resistance sessions. Participants will be provided with a copy of their gym program if they choose to complete an additional session unsupervised. Following the six week intervention, participants will attend a 90-minute post-intervention assessment to conduct the same tests performed during the initial assessment, to determine intervention effect.
Sponsors
Dr Jacqueline Pengelly
Study design
Allocation
Randomised controlled trial
Primary purpose
Treatment
Eligibility
Sex/Gender
All
Age
18 Years to 64 Years
Healthy volunteers
No
Inclusion criteria
Participants will be aged 18 to 64 years old, currently exercising for less than 150 minutes per week and be in at least their second year of study at a tertiary institution. Participants’ will also need to have mild to moderate depression, anxiety and/or stress, as categorised using the DASS-21. The maximum age will be set at 64yo, so that the study population is limited to adults, rather than older adults. There is no restriction on gender for inclusion.
Exclusion criteria
Only participants with mild or moderate symptoms will be eligible for inclusion. Anyone who has severe or extremely severe symptoms, will be advised to contact their GP to discuss the symptoms they are having, as they may not be formally diagnosed or may be experiencing and exacerbation in condition requiring intervention beyond the scope of this project. Participants who have been formally diagnosed with depression and/or anxiety AND have been medicated for less than 12 months will be excluded from participating.
Outcome results
None listed