The effect of exercise on anxiety in the elderly worldwide: a systematic review and meta-analysis.

Mohsen Kazeminia, Nader Salari, Aliakbar Vaisi-Raygani, Rostam Jalali, Alireza Abdi, Masoud Mohammadi, Alireza Daneshkhah, Melika Hosseinian-Far, Shamarina Shohaimi

Journal: Health and quality of life outcomes 2021;18(1):363

PMID: 33176811

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Plain Language Summary

Anxiety occurs in all age groups. In the US 15-52% of the elderly have anxiety related symptoms and these tend to manifest as physical problems such as insomnia, behavioural, sensory, urinary, cardiovascular, and gastrointestinal disorders. The elderly are more prone to anxiety due to loss or reduction of self-esteem, reduction of activity and stimulation, loss of friends and relatives, loss of physical independence, chronic diseases, changes in daily life or living environment, fear of death and lack of social support. Physical activity is a simple, cheap therapeutic approach. There are several preliminary studies on the effect of exercise training on reducing anxiety in the elderly, but there are inconsistencies between their results. The purpose of this meta-analysis is to resolve such inconsistencies. This meta-analysis included 19 studies published from 1999 until December 2019. Results of this study showed that sport significantly reduces anxiety in the elderly. Therefore, a regular exercise plan can be considered as a part of the elderly care program.

Abstract

BACKGROUND

Physical activity and exercise are among the most important, simplest, and cheapest approaches to anxiety treatment, especially for the elderly. Their positive effects on improvement of mental disorders in the elderly have attracted a considerable level of attention. Therefore, the present study was conducted to determine the effect of sport on reducing anxiety in the elderly using meta-analysis.

METHODS

In this study, national and international databases of SID, MagIran, IranMedex, IranDoc, Cochrane, Embase, ScienceDirect, Scopus, PubMed, and Web of Science were searched to find studies published electronically from 1999 to 2019. Heterogeneity between the collected studies was determined using the Cochran's test (Q) and I. Due to presence of heterogeneity, the random effects model was used to estimate the standardized mean difference of sport test scores obtained from the measurement of anxiety reduction among the elderly, between the intervention group before and after the test.

RESULTS

In this meta-analysis and systematic review, 19 papers finally met the inclusion criteria. The overall sample size of all collected studies for the meta-analysis was 841 s. Mean anxiety score before and after intervention were 38.7 ± 5.6 33.7 ± 3.4 respectively, denoting a decrease in anxiety score after intervention.

CONCLUSION

Results of this study indicates that Sport significantly reduces Anxiety in the Elderly. Therefore, a regular exercise program can be considered as a part of the elderly care program.

Address: Student Research Committee, Kermanshah University of Medical Sciences, Kermanshah, Iran.; Department of Biostatistics, School of Health, Kermanshah University of Medical Sciences, Kermanshah, Iran. [email protected].; Department of Nursing, School of Nursing and Midwifery, Kermanshah University of Medical Sciences, Kermanshah, Iran.; Department of Nursing, School of Nursing and Midwifery, Kermanshah University of Medical Sciences, Kermanshah, Iran. [email protected].; School of Computing, Electronics and Maths, Coventry University, London, UK.; Department of Food Science and Technology, Ferdowsi University of Mashhad (FUM), Mashhad, Iran.; Department of Biology, Faculty of Science, University Putra Malaysia, Serdang, Selangor, Malaysia.

DOI: 10.1186/s12955-020-01609-4