Effects of a 24‐week resistance exercise program on psychological distress in cognitively normal older adults. Preliminary results of The AGUEDA Randomized Control Trial

Abstract

AbstractBackgroundThe World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that, by 2050, the world’s population over the age of 65 will reach 71 million, and in turn, there is a clear trend of increasing numbers of older adults with some form of mental illness. Indeed, over 21% of older people are affected by mental disorders (e.g., depression or anxiety). Favorably, exercise is known to be an effective alternative for the prevention and treatment of mental health disorders, however, most of this evidence has focused on aerobic training, whereas the effects of resistance training remain unexplored. Thus, the aim of this study is to examine the effects of a 24‐week resistance exercise program on psychological distress in cognitively normal older adults.MethodsThe study included 81 cognitively normal older adults with valid baseline and follow‐up data who were randomly assigned to either a 24‐weeks resistance exercise program (n = 43) or a wait‐list control group (n = 38) as part of the AGUEDA trial (NCT05186090). The exercise program included 3 sessions/week, 60 min each. Psychological distress indicators (i.e., depression‐anxiety symptoms, stress and loneliness) were assessed using a set of valid and reliable self‐reported questionnaires. The effects of the intervention were examined using analysis of covariance (ANCOVA), where post‐exercise outcome values were the dependent variables, group (exercise vs control) the fixed factor, and baseline outcome data the covariates. The intervention effects were presented as z‐scores of changes.ResultsThe AGUEDA exercise program had a no effect on anxiety symptoms (z‐score = 0.106), 95% confidence interval (CI): ‐0.514 to 0.126, p = 0.232), stress (z‐score = 0.036), 95% CI: ‐0.313 to 0.449, p = 0.723) and loneliness (z‐score = 0.026), 95% CI: ‐0.315 to 0.432, p = 0.723). There was a borderline, with a small, nonsignificant effect on depressive symptoms (z‐score = ‐0.106), 95% CI: ‐0.752 to 0.051, p = 0.086).ConclusionThe 24‐weeks exercise intervention had no effect on most of the psychological distress indicators. However, we observed a borderline, small, nonsignificant effect in depressive symptoms. Therefore, future interventions with a larger sample size or longer intervention are needed to confirm these findings.