Perez-Lopez FR, et al. - The impact of programmed exercise on depressive symptoms (DSs) in midlife and older women is elucidated in this study. The outcomes of this study suggest that exercise of low to moderate intensity decreases depressive symptoms in midlife and older women.

Methods

• In this study, they completed a structured search of PubMed-Medline, Web of Science, Scopus, Embase, Cochrane Library and Scielo, from database inception through June 29, 2017, without language restriction.
• The search incorporated the following terms: “depression”, “depressive symptoms”, “exercise”, “physical activity”, “menopause”, and “randomized controlled trial” (RCTs) in midlife and older women.
• The US, UK and Australian Clinical Trials databases were also searched.
• They evaluated randomized controlled trials (RCTs) that compared the impact of exercise for at least 6 weeks versus no intervention on DSs as the outcome (as characterized by trial authors).
• Exercise was classified according to duration as “mid-term exercise intervention” (MTEI; lasting for 12 weeks to 4 months), and “long-term exercise intervention” (LTEI; lasting for 6-12 months).
• Mean changes (±standard deviations) in DSs, as evaluated with different questionnaires, were extracted to calculate Hedges’ g and then utilized as the impact size for meta-analysis.
• Standardized mean differences (SMDs) of DSs after intervention were pooled using a random-effects model.

Results

• In this study, total 11 publications were included for examination associated with 1,943 midlife and older women (age range 44-55 years minimum to 65.5 ± 4.0 maximum), none of whom was utilizing a hormone therapy.
• 7 MTEIs were related to a major reduction in DSs (SMD = -0.44; 95% CI -0.69, -0.18; p = 0.0008) compared with controls.
• The reduction in DSs was also significant in six LTEIs (SMD = - 0.29; 95% CI -0.49; -0.09; p = 0.005).
• They noted heterogeneity of impacts among studies was moderate to high.
• Less perceived stress and insomnia (after exercise) were also found as secondary outcomes.