Effects of an exercise and sport intervention on symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder and other mental health indices among asylum seekers in a camp. A pragmatic randomized controlled trial

IF 2.3 3区医学 Q2 PSYCHIATRY

Mental Health and Physical Activity Pub Date : 2025-03-01 DOI:10.1016/j.mhpa.2025.100676

Konstantinia Filippou , Florian Knappe , Antonis Hatzigeorgiadis , Ioannis D. Morres , Emmanouil Tzormpatzakis , Theodoros Proskinitopoulos , Marianne Meier , Harald Seelig , Sebastian Ludyga , Uwe Pühse , Roland von Känel , Yannis Theodorakis , Markus Gerber

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引用次数: 0

Abstract

Background and aims

People seeking asylum face a high risk of mental health disorders, in particular post-traumatic stress (PTSD). Physical activity has been recommended as an effective treatment for relieving mental health symptoms, yet the impact of exercise and sport in this particular and steeply increasing population has been scantly studied. This study aimed to examine the effects of an exercise and sport intervention primarily on PTSD but also on symptoms of depression, anxiety, stress, and well-being, among asylum seekers living in a camp.

Methods

One hundred and forty-two asylum seekers (75 women) were enrolled and randomly assigned into intervention and control groups. A 10-week intervention was implemented during which a variety of organized exercise and sport activities were provided daily for men and women separately. Mixed model ANOVAs were conducted to examine changes in outcome measures from pre-to post-intervention.

Results

Ninety-eight participants (58% women) with a mean age of 29.87 (±10.12) years completed both the pre-and post-intervention measures. They displayed a rather poor mental health profile, with 59% suffering from PTSD. The results showed that among participants of the intervention group, those attending the sport and exercise activities on average twice or more per week showed improved PTSD symptoms (p = .03, η²_p = .05), whereas no changes were found for those attending less than twice per week (p = .95, η²_p < .001), and participants of the control group (p = .98, η²_p < .001); no significant changes were revealed for depression, anxiety, stress, and well-being.

Conclusion

The findings provided indications that engagement in exercise and sport can help ameliorate symptoms of PTSD among asylum seekers and highlight the importance of participation frequency; the lack of improvements in other mental health indices may be linked to external factors and requires further investigation.

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来源期刊

Mental Health and Physical Activity PSYCHIATRY-

CiteScore

6.70

自引率

6.40%

发文量

审稿时长

32 days

期刊介绍： The aims of Mental Health and Physical Activity will be: (1) to foster the inter-disciplinary development and understanding of the mental health and physical activity field; (2) to develop research designs and methods to advance our understanding; (3) to promote the publication of high quality research on the effects of physical activity (interventions and a single session) on a wide range of dimensions of mental health and psychological well-being (eg, depression, anxiety and stress responses, mood, cognitive functioning and neurological disorders, such as dementia, self-esteem and related constructs, psychological aspects of quality of life among people with physical and mental illness, sleep, addictive disorders, eating disorders), from both efficacy and effectiveness trials;