Efficacy of a Combined Aerobic Exercise and Mindfulness Intervention on Depressive Symptoms: A Pilot Randomized Controlled Trial

Xiaoqi WEI; Hehui LI; Yuncheng JIA; Diyang QU; Sitong CHEN; Liuyue HUANG; Shiyun CHEN; He BU; Joelle LEMOULT; Gabriel ZIEFF; Li LIN; Xinli CHI

doi:10.1177/10497315251316844

Efficacy of a Combined Aerobic Exercise and Mindfulness Intervention on Depressive Symptoms: A Pilot Randomized Controlled Trial

Xiaoqi WEI, Hehui LI, Yuncheng JIA, Diyang QU, Sitong CHEN, Liuyue HUANG, Shiyun CHEN, He BU, Joelle LEMOULT, Gabriel ZIEFF, Li LIN, Xinli CHI^*

^*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Journal Publications › Journal Article (refereed) › peer-review

Abstract

Purpose: The current study aimed to preliminarily examine the effectiveness and acceptability of a combined exercise + mindfulness intervention on depressive symptoms among healthy Chinese university students (study 1) and those with subthreshold depression (study 2).

Methods: Two 2 (intervention group vs. control group) × 2 (pretest vs. posttest) randomized controlled trials were conducted in healthy students without subthreshold depression and students with subthreshold depression, respectively. Description analysis, linear mixed-effects models, and qualitative analysis were used in both studies.

Results: Results of both studies showed that the combined intervention was acceptable and effective in preventing and reducing depressive symptoms, with small effect sizes for healthy students (d = −0.47) and large effect sizes for subthreshold depression students (d = −1.51), respectively.

Conclusions: The aerobic exercise plus mindfulness intervention was evidenced to be a preventive and therapeutic measure of depressive symptoms among university students.

Original language	English
Journal	Research on Social Work Practice
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1177/10497315251316844
Publication status	E-pub ahead of print - 20 Feb 2025

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© The Author(s) 2025.

Funding

The authors disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: This work was funded by the Natural Science Foundation of Guangdong Province (Grant Number 2021A1515011330), the Shenzhen Education Science Planning Project (Grant Number cgpy21001), the Shenzhen University–Lingnan University Joint Research Programme (Grant Number 202202001), Humanities and Social Sciences of Ministry of Education Planning Foundation (Grant Number 23YJA190002), Guangdong Philosophy and Social Science Planning 2023 Co-construction Project (Grant Number GD23XXL17), Revitalization Project of Humanities & Social Sciences, Shenzhen University (Grant Number WKZX0311), Youth Research Project of Shenzhen University 2035 Outstanding Research Plan (Grant Number ZYQN2311), and the Shenzhen Humanities & Social Sciences Key Research Bases of the Center for Mental Health, Shenzhen University.

Keywords

aerobic exercise
combined intervention
depressive symptoms
mindfulness
subthreshold depression
university students

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10.1177/10497315251316844

https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/10497315251316844

Cite this

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title = "Efficacy of a Combined Aerobic Exercise and Mindfulness Intervention on Depressive Symptoms: A Pilot Randomized Controlled Trial",

abstract = "Purpose: The current study aimed to preliminarily examine the effectiveness and acceptability of a combined exercise + mindfulness intervention on depressive symptoms among healthy Chinese university students (study 1) and those with subthreshold depression (study 2). Methods: Two 2 (intervention group vs. control group) × 2 (pretest vs. posttest) randomized controlled trials were conducted in healthy students without subthreshold depression and students with subthreshold depression, respectively. Description analysis, linear mixed-effects models, and qualitative analysis were used in both studies.Results: Results of both studies showed that the combined intervention was acceptable and effective in preventing and reducing depressive symptoms, with small effect sizes for healthy students (d = −0.47) and large effect sizes for subthreshold depression students (d = −1.51), respectively.Conclusions: The aerobic exercise plus mindfulness intervention was evidenced to be a preventive and therapeutic measure of depressive symptoms among university students.",

keywords = "aerobic exercise, combined intervention, depressive symptoms, mindfulness, subthreshold depression, university students",

author = "Xiaoqi WEI and Hehui LI and Yuncheng JIA and Diyang QU and Sitong CHEN and Liuyue HUANG and Shiyun CHEN and He BU and Joelle LEMOULT and Gabriel ZIEFF and Li LIN and Xinli CHI",

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doi = "10.1177/10497315251316844",

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journal = "Research on Social Work Practice",

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T1 - Efficacy of a Combined Aerobic Exercise and Mindfulness Intervention on Depressive Symptoms: A Pilot Randomized Controlled Trial

AU - WEI, Xiaoqi

AU - LI, Hehui

AU - JIA, Yuncheng

AU - QU, Diyang

AU - CHEN, Sitong

AU - HUANG, Liuyue

AU - CHEN, Shiyun

AU - BU, He

AU - LEMOULT, Joelle

AU - ZIEFF, Gabriel

AU - LIN, Li

AU - CHI, Xinli

PY - 2025/2/20

Y1 - 2025/2/20

N2 - Purpose: The current study aimed to preliminarily examine the effectiveness and acceptability of a combined exercise + mindfulness intervention on depressive symptoms among healthy Chinese university students (study 1) and those with subthreshold depression (study 2). Methods: Two 2 (intervention group vs. control group) × 2 (pretest vs. posttest) randomized controlled trials were conducted in healthy students without subthreshold depression and students with subthreshold depression, respectively. Description analysis, linear mixed-effects models, and qualitative analysis were used in both studies.Results: Results of both studies showed that the combined intervention was acceptable and effective in preventing and reducing depressive symptoms, with small effect sizes for healthy students (d = −0.47) and large effect sizes for subthreshold depression students (d = −1.51), respectively.Conclusions: The aerobic exercise plus mindfulness intervention was evidenced to be a preventive and therapeutic measure of depressive symptoms among university students.

AB - Purpose: The current study aimed to preliminarily examine the effectiveness and acceptability of a combined exercise + mindfulness intervention on depressive symptoms among healthy Chinese university students (study 1) and those with subthreshold depression (study 2). Methods: Two 2 (intervention group vs. control group) × 2 (pretest vs. posttest) randomized controlled trials were conducted in healthy students without subthreshold depression and students with subthreshold depression, respectively. Description analysis, linear mixed-effects models, and qualitative analysis were used in both studies.Results: Results of both studies showed that the combined intervention was acceptable and effective in preventing and reducing depressive symptoms, with small effect sizes for healthy students (d = −0.47) and large effect sizes for subthreshold depression students (d = −1.51), respectively.Conclusions: The aerobic exercise plus mindfulness intervention was evidenced to be a preventive and therapeutic measure of depressive symptoms among university students.

KW - aerobic exercise

KW - combined intervention

KW - depressive symptoms

KW - mindfulness

KW - subthreshold depression

KW - university students

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U2 - 10.1177/10497315251316844

DO - 10.1177/10497315251316844

M3 - Journal Article (refereed)

SN - 1049-7315

JO - Research on Social Work Practice

JF - Research on Social Work Practice

ER -

Efficacy of a Combined Aerobic Exercise and Mindfulness Intervention on Depressive Symptoms: A Pilot Randomized Controlled Trial

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Keywords

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