Web-Based Physical Activity Intervention May Improve Mental Health Outcomes

A web-based physical activity intervention improved mental health outcomes, according to study results published in Mental Health and Physical Activity.

Researchers conducted a study of adults (N=501) in Australia who were inactive were recruited via advertisements. Adult participants (N=501) were randomly assigned into video-tailored, text-tailored, and control interventions lasting 9 months. All participants had access to a text-based library with generic physical activity information. The video and text interventions also had access to 8 personally tailored physical activity sessions and an action-planning tool, which was delivered by video or text depending on the intervention arm.

Data from the 2 intervention arms were pooled, and the primary outcomes were the change in the 21-item Depression, Anxiety, and Stress Scale (DASS-21) scores and Short-Form Health Survey (SF-12) physical component summary (PCS), and mental component summary (MCS) scores.

The intervention (n=334) and control (n=167) cohorts included participants who were aged between 18 and 45 years (52% vs 51%), mostly women (72% vs 72%), and did not meet the physical activity guideline of 150 minutes per week of moderate to vigorous physical activity (77% vs 81%). Over one-third of participants were obese (BMI≥30 kg/m²; 33% vs 42%), respectively.

A total of 179 participants were lost before the 3-month follow-up and 40 more were lost by the 9-month follow-up.

Compared with baseline, the proportion of participants at 9 months who did not meet the criteria for depression increased from 81.7% to 89.6% in the intervention cohort and from 86.2% to 90.1% in the control cohort. Improvements in anxiety, stress, and SF-12 MCS scores were also observed at 9-months compared with baseline, but there was little effect observed on SF-12 PCS scores.

In the general mixed model analysis, there were significant time effects on SF-12 MCS scores (P <.001) and depression (P =.0080), and a significant group-by-time interaction was observed for depression (P =.0427).

In a post hoc analysis involving the imputation of missing data, significant improvements were observed at 9 months compared with baseline for depression within both groups (both P ≤.05), for anxiety within the intervention group (P <.01) and in comparison of the intervention with control group (P <.05), for stress within the intervention group (P <.01), and for SF12 MCS scores within both groups (both P <.01).

Limitations of the study include the fact that most study participants had good mental health status at baseline.

Study authors conclude, “A web-based intervention…did have a positive impact on depression, anxiety, stress, and mental quality of life. To our knowledge our study is the first to examine mental health outcomes in a trial that assessed physical activity changes in response to a web-based intervention. Our findings should be interpreted with some caution and other similar studies should be conducted to assess whether our findings can be replicated.”