The Short-term Effect of Aerobics on Depressive Symptoms toward Healthy People

Aims: To clarify whether short-term aerobics can ameliorate depressive symptoms.

Study Design: Open trial without comparison.

Place and Duration of Study: Aerobics exercise course was held on Saga Newspaper Culture Center, Saga, Japan. Duration of this study was three months between April 1, 2010, and June 30, 2010.

Methodology: Eleven healthy people who participated in the aerobics exercise, of which 5 were men and 6 were women. The age range is 25 to 75 years (mean 49.2 ± SD 14.3). In the aerobic exercise program, one session (90 minutes) was composed of brief meeting (10 minutes), warm-up exercises (5 minutes), the primary exercises (low impact and high impact, 30-35 minutes), stretch (10 minutes), muscle training (25 minutes), and cooling down (5 minutes). The two outcome measures, Zung's Self Depression Scale (SDS) and Beck Depression Inventory (BDI) were assessed at baseline and three months.

Results: At baseline, mean ± SD for SDS and BDI were 35.5 ± 8.8 and 5.6 ± 9.7, and 31.9 ± 5.8 and 2.2 ± 3.5 at the three month follow up. There was only significant improvement in SDS (SDS, z = -2.014), p = 0.044; BDI, z = -0.294, p = 0.294).

Conclusion: Aerobic exercise program seems to decline depressive symptoms among healthy people. In particular, this effect may be reflected in SDS not in BDI among Japanese people.