Affiliations 

  • 1 Student Research Committee, Kermanshah University of Medical Sciences, Kermanshah, Iran
  • 2 Department of Biostatistics, School of Health, Kermanshah University of Medical Sciences, Kermanshah, Iran. n_s_514@yahoo.com
  • 3 Department of Nursing, School of Nursing and Midwifery, Kermanshah University of Medical Sciences, Kermanshah, Iran
  • 4 Department of Nursing, School of Nursing and Midwifery, Kermanshah University of Medical Sciences, Kermanshah, Iran. Masoud.mohammadi1989@yahoo.com
  • 5 School of Computing, Electronics and Maths, Coventry University, London, UK
  • 6 Department of Food Science and Technology, Ferdowsi University of Mashhad (FUM), Mashhad, Iran
  • 7 Department of Biology, Faculty of Science, University Putra Malaysia, Serdang, Selangor, Malaysia
Health Qual Life Outcomes, 2020 Nov 11;18(1):363.
PMID: 33176811 DOI: 10.1186/s12955-020-01609-4

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Physical activity and exercise are among the most important, simplest, and cheapest approaches to anxiety treatment, especially for the elderly. Their positive effects on improvement of mental disorders in the elderly have attracted a considerable level of attention. Therefore, the present study was conducted to determine the effect of sport on reducing anxiety in the elderly using meta-analysis.

METHODS: In this study, national and international databases of SID, MagIran, IranMedex, IranDoc, Cochrane, Embase, ScienceDirect, Scopus, PubMed, and Web of Science were searched to find studies published electronically from 1999 to 2019. Heterogeneity between the collected studies was determined using the Cochran's test (Q) and I2. Due to presence of heterogeneity, the random effects model was used to estimate the standardized mean difference of sport test scores obtained from the measurement of anxiety reduction among the elderly, between the intervention group before and after the test.

RESULTS: In this meta-analysis and systematic review, 19 papers finally met the inclusion criteria. The overall sample size of all collected studies for the meta-analysis was 841 s. Mean anxiety score before and after intervention were 38.7 ± 5.6 33.7 ± 3.4 respectively, denoting a decrease in anxiety score after intervention.

CONCLUSION: Results of this study indicates that Sport significantly reduces Anxiety in the Elderly. Therefore, a regular exercise program can be considered as a part of the elderly care program.

* Title and MeSH Headings from MEDLINE®/PubMed®, a database of the U.S. National Library of Medicine.