Feasibility Study of an Online Physical Activity Intervention for Youth With Depression
Condition: Low Mood; Mild Depression; Moderate Depression; Inactivity, Physical
MeSH terms: Depression; Depressive Disorder
Study type: Interventional

Summary: 
      Physical activity (PA) has recently been established as both a primary intervention for mild
      to moderate, and a secondary therapy for moderate to severe Major Depressive Disorder (MDD;
      Fortier et al., 2020). Those with mental health disorders do not on average achieve
      recommended levels of PA (Hallgren et al., 2016), and exercise prescription is extremely
      lacking in clinical care (Stanton, Reaburn, & Happell, 2015; Stanton et al., 2018).
      Theory-based behavioural interventions have proven to be an effective tool for improving
      physical activity levels in clinical populations (Glowacki, et al., 2017; Stanton et al.,
      2015). More research is needed to understand PA intervention effectiveness for MDD patients
      (Glowacki et al., 2017), support integration of such behavioural treatments with primary care
      (Lederman et al., 2017), and address growing concerns regarding mental health during the
      global pandemic and beyond (Boyce, 2021). This community-based study examines the feasibility
      of a co-designed, 10-week, asynchronous, web-based beta platform PA intervention for patients
      with experience of low mood and/or mild to moderate depression, and will provide important
      parameters for a future randomized-controlled trial (RCT). Primary outcome measures will
      focus on acceptability and feasibility, including recruitment and retention rates. Secondary
      measures will include physical activity and depression symptom severity. Behavioural
      predictors of PA are to be evaluated as tertiary outcomes. Questionnaires will include an
      adapted participant experience measure, Godin Leisure-Time Exercise Questionnaire, and the
      Patient Health Questionnaire-9. This study features a controlled baseline, post-intervention
      evaluative design with an embedded quantitative process evaluation with a waitlist control.
      Participants will be young adults with experience of low mood and/or mild to moderate
      depression, 19-30 years of age, with access to a device with internet, English speaking,
      living within British Columbia, CAN., and falling below the minimum Canadian recommendations
      for PA. Study recruitment will primarily be facilitated by multiple youth mental health
      primary and community care clinics. This study will contribute to understanding of
      acceptable, efficacious, behaviour-based and mobile health intervention approaches for young
      adults with depression. It will also provide young people with a platform to share invaluable
      feedback to direct innovations in their own alternative care and mental health treatment. If
      outcome benchmarks set based on previous literature are met or exceeded for each of
      recruitment, retention, and acceptability, and depressive symptoms trend downwards for
      intervention participants, then a future randomized controlled trial exploring principally
      mental health outcomes will be recommended.
    


Intervention name(s): physical activity
Intervention type(s): Behavioral
Intervention description(s): A series of 10 weekly psychoeducational modules including information on psychosocial determinants of physical activity engagement, adherence and maintenance, as well as a number of other behaviour change tools, like reflection activities.
Allocation: Randomized
Intervention model: Parallel Assignment
Masking: None (Open Label)
Primary purpose: Treatment