Findings published in the journal found that participants in a web-based physical activity intervention improved their levels of depression, anxiety, and stress. mental health and physical activityInterestingly, these mental health benefits appear to have occurred without significant improvements in physical activity.
Despite overwhelming evidence that physical exercise can improve mental health, many adults do not meet current physical activity recommendations. The World Health Organization recommends at least 150 minutes of moderate-intensity physical activity per week. Evidence suggests that the COVID-19 pandemic has further reduced physical activity levels among the general public.
Technology-based physical activity interventions have been developed to encourage people to exercise more. These interventions help support people to increase their activity levels using online methods such as smartphone apps, activity trackers and social networks. Although these interventions show promise, it is unclear whether they have mental health benefits.
“Web-based interventions have the potential to reach large populations in a cost-effective manner,” said study author Corniel Vanderanot (@Corneal VDL), Research Professor and Future Fellow, University of Central Queensland, Australia. “While we know that physical activity can improve outcomes, less is known about how it can positively impact mental health outcomes. Sexuality is well established, and in theory, web-based physical activity interventions should also improve mental health outcomes.”
For their study, Vandelanotte and his colleagues recruited a sample of 501 currently inactive Australian residents (i.e., engaging in less than 150 minutes of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity per week). ). At baseline, participants completed sociodemographic measures and measures of depression, anxiety, stress, and health-related quality of life. Participants were then randomly assigned to a control group or a web-based physical activity intervention group.
The intervention group was given access to an action planning tool and 8 physical activity sessions delivered over 3 months. Survey responses and an IF-THEN algorithm were used to provide participants with personally tailored content and advice. The session covered concepts such as self-efficacy, intention, and motivation. They also applied behavior modification techniques such as feedback, direction, goal setting, habit formation, self-monitoring, action planning, and problem solving. Three months after baseline and nine months after his, the participant again completed the psychological assessment.
Results revealed that, at all time points, participants who received the exercise intervention reported less depression, anxiety, stress, and a higher quality of mental life compared to baseline. did. Additionally, compared to controls, they reported that she had less depression, anxiety, and stress at 3 months and less anxiety at 9 months.
The researchers note that in a previous study, this web-based exercise intervention improved self-reported physical activity, but not accelerometer-measured physical activity. This is interesting given that the participants experienced significant improvements in their mental health.
The findings suggest that “improvements in mental health were achieved using web-based physical activity interventions, even if physical activity did not improve (objective measures did not show significant improvement in physical activity levels)”. It shows that they can do it, but participants believe their physical activity has improved (we saw significant improvements in self-reported activity levels),” Vandelanotte told PsyPost.
The study’s authors say these results are consistent with psychological explanations for the mental health benefits of exercise. People seem to experience positive psychological outcomes when they believe that a physical activity intervention has made them more active, even if they are not actually increasing their activity. Whether you increase it or not, it may promote a sense of accomplishment and improved self-esteem and body image.
“To achieve mental health improvements, it is more important to do what you believe to have happened (thinking you are more active) than what actually happened (no actual increase in physical activity). is more important,” says Vandelanotte.
Findings suggest that internet-based physical activity interventions are effective in improving mental health, but the historical literature is mixed. increase. Moreover, despite a large and robust sample, most of the study participants reported good mental health at baseline, which may limit the detection of mental health improvements due to the ceiling effect. Populations with lower mental health, as in the clinical sample, may have greater mental health impacts from interventions.
“This is just one study, and the findings need to be confirmed in other studies,” Vandelanotte said. “The findings do not apply to populations with clinical mental health problems, as participants in this study had generally good mental health prior to the study (and this study was able to further improve mental health outcomes, but not by much.
The study, “Impact of a web-based personalized physical activity intervention on depression, anxiety, stress, and quality of life: secondary outcomes of a randomized controlled trial,” Corniel Vandellanotte, Mitch J. Duncan, Ronald Written by C. Plotnikov. , Amanda Rebar, Stephanie Alley, Stephanie Schoeppe, Quyen To, W. Kerry Mummery, Camille E. Short.
