Proceedings of the 26th and the 27th International Academic Conference (Istanbul, Prague)

THE EFFECT OF “PHYSICAL ACTIVITY PROGRAM” ON THE DEPRESSIVE SYMPTOMS AND QUALITY OF LIFE

NESLIHAN LÖK, SEFA LOK, MUAMMER CANBAZ

Abstract:

Objectives:Physical activity might have positive influences on diminishing anxiety, stress and depression; sustaining mental health and providing liveliness. This study is conducted in order to evaluate the influence of “Physical Activity Program” applied on elders in nursing home on the depressive symptoms and quality of life. Methods of research:This study is designed in experimental manner with pretest posttest design. The population of the study is determined according to the inclusion exclusion criteria and it includes 80 individuals aged over 65 (40 experimental group and 40 control group) who live in nursing home belonging to Metropolitan Municipality. Prepared in compliance with the literature, the “Physical Activity Program” comprises of 10 minutes of warm up, 20 minutes of rhythmic exercise, 10 minutes of cool down and 30 minutes of free walking and it is applied under the supervision of the researchers four times a week for ten weeks in total. As pretest posttest design, the data is collected with socio-demographic features information form, Beck depression scale and SF 36 quality of life scale. For the evaluation of the data, Wilcoxon signed rank test, Mann Whitney U and Oneway ANOWA tests are utilized. Results: While it is detected that the score averages of the depression scale of the individuals in the experimental group of the research before the Physical Activity Program decreases by the end of the program (p<0.05), it is seen from the posttest measurement that the pretest depression scale score averages of the control group do not change by the end of the program. It is detected that after the “Physical Activity Program” related to the quality of life of the experimental group; score averages in eight sub-scales and two sub-dimensions are higher than the score averages of control group (p<0.05). Conclusions: According to the results of our study, the “Physical Activity Program” is influential on the depressive symptoms and quality of life of the individuals. The “Physical Activity Program” decreases the depressive symptoms of individuals and increases their quality of life.

Keywords: Elders, Physical Activity Program, Depression, Quality of Life

DOI: 10.20472/IAC.2016.027.026

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