Effects of exercise therapy on anxiety and depression in patients with COVID-19: a systematic review and meta-analysis

Front Public Health. 2024 Mar 6:12:1330521. doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2024.1330521. eCollection 2024.

Abstract

Objective: With increasing rates of anxiety and depression during COVID-19, exercise treatment has drawn attention for its effects on COVID-19 patients with anxiety and depression. This study set out to assess the impact of exercise therapy on COVID-19 patients' anxiety and depression.

Methods: PubMed, EMBASE, Web of Science and Cochrane Library were used to search articles about exercise therapy as a means of treating anxiety and depression in COVID-19 patients from inception to April 30, 2023. The risk of bias was assessed by the Cochrane Collaboration bias risk tool. Data were pooled with the random effects model. RevMan version 5.4 was used for the statistical analyses. This work was registered in the PROSPERO database (registration number: CRD42023406439).

Selection criteria: Randomized clinical trials (RCTs) of COVID-19 patients with anxiety and depression were included to assess the impact of physical exercise on COVID-19 patients with anxiety and depression.

Results: 6 studies including a total of 461 COVID-19 patients were analyzed in this meta-analysis. Overall, the meta-analysis showed that compared with the control group, exercise could significantly improve anxiety (SMD = -0.76; 95%CI: -0.96, -0.55; p < 0.00001), depression level (SMD = -0.39; 95%CI: -0.70, -0.09; p = 0.01), the PHQ-9 score (MD = -1.82; 95%CI: -2.93, -0.71; p = 0.001) and the sleep quality (SMD = -0.73; 95%CI: -1.32, -0.14; p = 0.01) in COVID-19 patients.

Conclusion: The research provided evidence that exercise therapy is able to help COVID-19 patients experience less anxiety and depression and have better-quality sleep.

Systematic review registration: CRD42023406439.

Keywords: COVID-19; anxiety; depression; exercise therapy; meta-analysis.

Publication types

  • Meta-Analysis
  • Systematic Review
  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Anxiety / therapy
  • COVID-19* / therapy
  • Depression* / therapy
  • Exercise Therapy
  • Humans
  • Quality of Life

Grants and funding

The author(s) declare that financial support was received for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. This work was supported by Shaanxi Provincial Administration of Chinese Medicine “Double Chain Integration” Middle-aged and Young Research Innovation Team Project (No. 2022-SLRH-YQ-008), Shaanxi University of Chinese Medicine Clinical Medicine Excellence Discipline Team Building Project (No. 104-1720201024), Shaanxi University of Chinese Medicine Innovative Team Project for Research on the Theory of Medicinal Properties of Chinese Medicine under Grant (No. 2020XKTD-A04), Science and Technology Research and Development Program of Xianyang Municipality (No. 2021ZDYF-SF-0044).