Physical exercise and depression in community-dwelling elderly: a systematic review

Abstract

In recent years, life expectancy has increased. With aging, changes in the capabilities of the elderly are observed. For example, changes in mental and functional areas and decreased physical activity can develop depressive syndrome. As for treatment, there are pharmacological and non-pharmacological treatments. Among the latter, there is physical exercise; however, the effective dose to obtain improvements in depression is not specified. The objective of this systematic review was to examine in clinical trials the impact of physical activity on depression in community-dwelling older people. A secondary objective was to specify the variables of physical activity. To achieve this, a systematic search was performed in Pubmed and Dialnet databases, taking into account different criteria. The methodological quality was assessed using PEDro scale. After carrying out the search process, 7 investigations were included in the review, and generally, multicomponent activities were performed 3 times per week, despite the fact that the duration of the intervention was different. With this, on depression the intervention groups in 5 studies significantly improved, but no significant results were achieved in others. Thus, depending on the results obtained, physical exercise has beneficial effects on depression in the community-dwelling elderly, although different results can be found depending on the level of depression. However, the necessary dose for effective physical activity has not been determined, and future researches should consider the age, sex and level of depression of the patients in order to have more homogeneous groups, as well as to improve the results.