Effectiveness of aerobic exercises in the treatment of geriatric depression in kenya

The study was conducted at Nyumba ya Wazee Nairobi county in Kenya and the study aimed at examining the effects of aerobic exercises as a treatment method of geriatric depression and also to investigate how aerobic exercises are affected by sex and chronic diseases in the participants. The study included 30 patients who agreed to participate, aged 65-75 years, and who were diagnosed with geriatric depression. From the study, 46.67% (n = 14) of the participants were males, 53.33% (n = 16) were females, 40.00% (n = 12) had chronic diseases, 60.00% (n = 18) had no chronic diseases. A total of 6 weeks, four days a week aerobic exercise program was administered to the participants. Before the exercise program, demographic information of the participants, blood pressure, heart rate, respiratory rate, quality of life and depression levels were recorded before and after the exercise program. Depression levels were measured using the Clinically Useful Depression Outcome Scale, while the quality of life was measured using the World Health Organization's Quality of Life Questionnaire. From this study, it was established that the aerobic exercise program significantly decreased the level of depression (p <0.001). The decrease in the level of depression was similar in men and women (p = 0.085). At the same time, participants without chronic illnesses had much-reduced levels of depression compared to those who had chronic depression (p <0.001). According to the results of our study, it has been observed that aerobic exercises are effective as a treatment of geriatric depression. The difference in sex of the participants does not affect the effectiveness of the exercise program in the treatment of depression and the participants with chronic illnesses show little improvement compared to those without chronic diseases. For these reasons, it can be concluded that aerobic exercises can be used as an effective method in the treatment of patients with geriatric depression. Keywords: Aerobic exercise, depression, geriatric