International Journal of Cardiovascular Sciences. 19/nov/2019;32(6):563-4.

Moderate Exercise Improves Depressive Symptoms and Pain in Elderly People

Leandro Franzoni , Ricardo Stein

DOI: 10.5935/2359-4802.20190094

Este Editorial é referido pelo Artigo de Pesquisa "Moderate-Intensity Walking Training Improves Depressive Symptoms and Pain in Older Adults with Good Quality of Life: A Controlled Randomized Trial".

By the year of 2050, it is estimated that approximately two billion people in the world will be older than 60 years. Aging directly affects individuals’ quality of life (QoL) due to reduced autonomy in daily life activities. In this context, psychological and physical aspects, such as depression and pain, impair the QoL of elderly individuals. Antidepressant medication is commonly used to treat depression, and physical exercise has been increasingly prescribed as therapeutic alternative to depression symptoms. In addition, this non-pharmacological measure may have an analgesic effect as it attenuates the physical pain caused by the pathological process of aging. In this regard, aerobic exercise, such as moderate-intensity walking seems to have a positive impact on anxiety/depression and on physical pain and has the potential to improve the QoL of elderly people according to an observational study conducted in South Korea.

In the present issue of the International Journal of Cardiovascular Sciences, Alabarse et al., compare the effects of moderate-intensity walking on QoL, depressive symptoms, and physical pain in Brazilian elderly individuals. In this study, 69 individuals were recruited and allocated in two groups – training group (TG, n = 40) and CG, n = 29. The sample was composed of physically active individuals (> 150 minutes of physical activity per week), with a mean age of 68.2 ± 5.2 years and 65.3 ± 3.8 in the TG and in the CT, respectively (p = 0.57). Participants included in the TG performed moderate-intensity walking three times a week for 12 weeks. The CG was instructed to maintain their usual activities during the study period and were followed by telephone interview every 15 days. Exercise training protocol followed the American College of Sports and Medicine (ACSM) and the American Heart Association (AHA) guidelines and consisted of a five-minute warm-up using body movements, and 30 minutes of continuous, moderate-intensity walking. This was defined as 50-70% of the maximum heart rate (HRmax), established by the cardiopulmonary exercise testing (CPET). In the last five minutes, subjects performed low-intensity breathing and stretching exercises.

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