Effects of High-Intensity Interval Training on Depressive Symptoms in Hong Kong Older Adults

August 29, 2023 updated by: Hong Kong Baptist University

Effects of High-Intensity Interval Training on Depressive Symptoms in Hong Kong Older Adults With Mild and Moderate Depression: A Cluster-Randomized Controlled Trial

Depression in later life is a common health problem in aging societies. It is associated with poor quality of life, and increased risks of morbidity and mortality. People with severe depression may develop serious psychotic symptoms (e.g., delusions) and have higher mortality and disability than those with mild and moderate depression.

Traditional moderate-intensity continuous training (MICT) (e.g., Baduanjin Qigong) has proved to be effective in preventing and alleviating depressive symptoms among older adults. However, older adults with mental illnesses have poorer engagement and compliance with MICT programs. In recent years, as a novel type of exercise, high-intensity interval training (HIIT), which includes repeated bouts of high-intensity effort followed by varied recovery times, appears to be a promising approach for overcoming limitations in traditional MICT programs.

Considering there is little evidence of HIIT benefits related to older adults with depression, the current study aims to evaluate the effectiveness of a 16-week HIIT intervention on depressive symptoms and other health-related outcomes among Hong Kong Chinese older adults.

Study Overview

Status

Recruiting

Conditions

Intervention / Treatment

Detailed Description

The study will be a cluster randomized controlled trial (CRCT) with three groups and three times repeated measures. Data will be collected in a pretest, post-test, and three months after the intervention. The eligible community elderly centers will be randomly distributed into one of three groups in a ratio of 1:1:1. The participants recruited and meeting the screening criteria will receive a 16-week HIIT intervention or Baduanjin exercise or recreation workshop. The intervention effects will be evaluated on depressive symptoms, concentration of salivary cortisol, sleep quality, quality of life, and physical fitness.

Study Type

Interventional

Enrollment (Estimated)

144

Phase

  • Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

This section provides the contact details for those conducting the study, and information on where this study is being conducted.

Study Contact

Study Locations

  • Hong Kong
      • Hong Kong, Hong Kong
        • Recruiting
        • Bliss District Elderly Community Centre

Participation Criteria

Researchers look for people who fit a certain description, called eligibility criteria. Some examples of these criteria are a person's general health condition or prior treatments.

Eligibility Criteria

Ages Eligible for Study

  • Adult
  • Older Adult

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Yes

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

  • 60 to 74 years at the start date of the project
  • Chinese version of Geriatric Depression Scale (GDS-C) scoring 5-11 (i.e., mild to moderate level of depressive symptoms)
  • Passing the PAR-Q plus screening or with the physician's approval for readiness to participate in high-intensity exercise
  • Above the average level of 2-mins stepping showing competent aerobic fitness
  • No restriction on physical mobility
  • No cognitive impairment, as determined by the Chinese version of the Mini-Mental Status Examination (i.e., score < 24)
  • No previous substantial experiences in practicing HIIT or Baduanjin Qigong. The written informed consent form will be collected from each participant

Exclusion Criteria:

  • Severe chronic disease restricting high-intensity exercise
  • Having cognition impairment regarded by specialists

Study Plan

This section provides details of the study plan, including how the study is designed and what the study is measuring.

How is the study designed?

Design Details

  • Primary Purpose: Treatment
  • Allocation: Randomized
  • Interventional Model: Parallel Assignment
  • Masking: Double

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm
Intervention / Treatment
Experimental: High-intensity interval training (HIIT)
HIIT program for 16 weeks with a frequency of 2 times per week.
Behavioral: HIIT
Participants will receive a 16-week HIIT program, with 2 sessions per week. Each session will comprise three sections, including warm-up, main exercise and cool down. The time will be between 34 to 40 minutes with progression of training. Each HIIT section will include ten combined exercises with self-weight. For Weeks 1-2, the HIIT section will include 10 intervals of 30 seconds HIIT workout at corresponding intensity, separated by 9 intervals of 60 seconds of active recovery.
Active Comparator: Moderate intensity continuous training (MICT)
Baduanjin exercise as MICT will be applied with the same program duration and frequency as the HIIT group. The entire set of Baduanjin Qigong exercises in the current study includes 8 postures.
Behavioral: Baduanjin
As a typical MICT, Baduanjin Qigong will be performed. The instructor will provide group teaching with individual instructions on specific movements. The same training principles of individuality and progression used in the HIIT group will also be applied to Baduanjin Qigong group.
Placebo Comparator: Non-exercise control
Participants will not receive any exercise training, but attending 32 recreation workshops.
Behavioral: Workshop
Participants in the non-exercise control group will receive a series of workshops related to daily recreation.

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Self-reported depressive symptoms
Time Frame: Outcome evaluations will be performed three times at pre-intervention (T1 baseline), after 16-weeks intervention (T2 post-test), and 3 months after intervention completion (T3 follow-up test).
The Chinese version of the 15-item Geriatric Depression Scale (GDS-C) will be used to measure the subjective depression level. The GDS are the most widely used scales for the detection of depression symptoms in older adults (Cronbach's α = .81 -.83).
Outcome evaluations will be performed three times at pre-intervention (T1 baseline), after 16-weeks intervention (T2 post-test), and 3 months after intervention completion (T3 follow-up test).

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Physical fitness
Time Frame: Outcome evaluations will be performed three times at pre-intervention (T1 baseline), after 16-weeks intervention (T2 post-test), and 3 months after intervention completion (T3 follow-up test).
Physical fitness will be assessed using the Senior Fitness Test (SFT) battery. There are seven testing items measuring all five dimensions of PT, including the body mass index (BMI), 30s chair stand for lower limbs' muscle strength, 30s arm curl for upper limbs' muscle strength, 2-min step test for aerobic endurance, chair sit-and-reach test for lower body flexibility, back scratch test for upper body flexibility, and 8ft up-and-go test for mobility and dynamic balance.
Outcome evaluations will be performed three times at pre-intervention (T1 baseline), after 16-weeks intervention (T2 post-test), and 3 months after intervention completion (T3 follow-up test).
Sleep quality
Time Frame: Outcome evaluations will be performed three times at pre-intervention (T1 baseline), after 16-weeks intervention (T2 post-test), and 3 months after intervention completion (T3 follow-up test).
The Chinese version of the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI) will be used to measure sleep quality. The PSQI is a widely validated scale appropriate for use with older adults. The scale includes 18 items, covering seven domains: subjective SQ, sleep latency, sleep duration, sleep efficiency, frequency of sleep disturbance, daytime dysfunction, and use of sleep medications.
Outcome evaluations will be performed three times at pre-intervention (T1 baseline), after 16-weeks intervention (T2 post-test), and 3 months after intervention completion (T3 follow-up test).
Perceived quality of life
Time Frame: Outcome evaluations will be performed three times at pre-intervention (T1 baseline), after 16-weeks intervention (T2 post-test), and 3 months after intervention completion (T3 follow-up test).
The quality of life will be assessed by the Hong Kong Chinese WHO Quality of Life Scale brief version (WHOQOL-BREF) (Cronbach's α = .73 -.84). The scale includes 28 items, covering four dimensions of how older adults perceive their quality of life.
Outcome evaluations will be performed three times at pre-intervention (T1 baseline), after 16-weeks intervention (T2 post-test), and 3 months after intervention completion (T3 follow-up test).
Concentration of saliva cortisol
Time Frame: Evaluations of concentration of saliva cortisol will be performed three times at pre-intervention (T1 baseline), after 16-weeks intervention (T2 post-test), and 3 months after intervention completion (T3 follow-up test).
Objective biomarker of depression will be measured in salivary cortisol. All participants will be provided with three salivette tubes and be asked to collect the saliva samples (2-3 ml) at awakening and 30 mins after awakening, respectively. All saliva samples for all subjects will be collected at the same time of day and samples will not be taken on days in which participants are sick with a fever. The salivette tubes will be stored in the freezer zone until to be tested. ELISA KIT protocol will be used to be followed to collect and analyze the samples in each assessment.
Evaluations of concentration of saliva cortisol will be performed three times at pre-intervention (T1 baseline), after 16-weeks intervention (T2 post-test), and 3 months after intervention completion (T3 follow-up test).

Other Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Heart rate
Time Frame: Heart rate will be monitored from the start of warm-up to the end of cool-down at each exercise session during the 16-weeks exercise intervention.
Participants will be monitored by Polar verity sensor during exercise and their heart rate will be monitored to ensure their safety and intensity adherence of exercise protocol.
Heart rate will be monitored from the start of warm-up to the end of cool-down at each exercise session during the 16-weeks exercise intervention.
Self-reported Rate of Perceived Exertion (RPE)
Time Frame: RPE will be asked at the end of main exercise at each exercise session during the 16-weeks intervention.
Older adults will be asked about the self-reported Rate of Perceived Exertion (RPE Borg CR-10 category scale) after they complete the main exercise training in each session.
RPE will be asked at the end of main exercise at each exercise session during the 16-weeks intervention.
Safety: adverse events
Time Frame: Adverse events will be asked at the end of each exercise session during the 16-weeks intervention program.
All adverse events will be recorded as safety endpoints.
Adverse events will be asked at the end of each exercise session during the 16-weeks intervention program.
Exercise acceptability
Time Frame: Outcome evaluations will be conducted at the completion of 16-weeks intervention.
Exercise acceptability will be assessed post-intervention using ten questionnaire items responding to a 5-point Likert scale (strongly disagree, disagree, neither agree nor disagree, agree, and strongly agree). The score on this scale ranges from 10 to 50, the higher score shows better acceptability to the exercise intervention.
Outcome evaluations will be conducted at the completion of 16-weeks intervention.
Process evaluation of intervention program
Time Frame: Outcome evaluations will be conducted at the completion of 16-weeks intervention.
A process evaluation scale of the intervention process will be developed for this study based on the previous framework of process evaluation for the intervention study. This scale with 10 items using a 5-point (strongly unsatisfied, unsatisfied, neutral, satisfied, and strongly satisfied). The score on this scale ranges from 10 to 50, a higher score shows higher satisfaction with the intervention program.
Outcome evaluations will be conducted at the completion of 16-weeks intervention.

Collaborators and Investigators

This is where you will find people and organizations involved with this study.

Sponsor

Hong Kong Baptist University

Investigators

  • Principal Investigator: Yanping Duan, Hong Kong Baptist Univeristy; Department of Sport, Physical Education and Health

Publications and helpful links

The person responsible for entering information about the study voluntarily provides these publications. These may be about anything related to the study.

General Publications

Helpful Links

Study record dates

These dates track the progress of study record and summary results submissions to ClinicalTrials.gov. Study records and reported results are reviewed by the National Library of Medicine (NLM) to make sure they meet specific quality control standards before being posted on the public website.

Study Major Dates

Study Start (Actual)

March 1, 2023

Primary Completion (Estimated)

June 1, 2024

Study Completion (Estimated)

December 31, 2024

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

August 8, 2023

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

August 22, 2023

First Posted (Actual)

August 28, 2023

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (Actual)

September 1, 2023

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

August 29, 2023

Last Verified

June 1, 2023

More Information

Terms related to this study

Keywords

Additional Relevant MeSH Terms

Other Study ID Numbers

  • 12616922

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?

NO

Drug and device information, study documents

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product

No

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product

No

This information was retrieved directly from the website clinicaltrials.gov without any changes. If you have any requests to change, remove or update your study details, please contact register@clinicaltrials.gov. As soon as a change is implemented on clinicaltrials.gov, this will be updated automatically on our website as well.

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