The Effect of Concurrent Aerobic and Anaerobic Exercise on Stress, Anxiety, Depressive Symptoms, and Blood Pressure in Renal Transplant Female Patients: A Randomized Control Trial

Abstract

Background: Prevalence of stress, anxiety, depressive symptoms, and high blood pressure are known to be important issues among renal transplant patients. Objective: The main purpose of this study was to evaluate the effect of selected exercises on blood pressure, stress, anxiety, depressive symptoms, and blood pressure among renal transplant patients. Method: Thirty two women patients (aged, 20-50 years) with 2 to 3 years post renal transplantation history were voluntarily and objectively recruited. Participants were randomly divided into two groups, exercise (n=16) and control (n=16). The exercise group performed 10 weeks of exercise 3 days per week, and for 60-90 minutes per session. The control group involved no exercise. The DASS21 questionnaire was used to collect psychological data, and blood pressure was measured before and after 10 weeks of exercise. Data analysis was conducted using dependent and independent t-tests. Results: Concurrent exercise significantly reduced anxiety, stress, depressive symptoms, and systolic blood pressure in the exercise group only (p=0.000). Conclusion: Ten weeks of low-intensity exercise can be an effective measure to improve the stress, anxiety, depressive symptoms, and blood pressure in renal transplant patients. Our results suggest that a regular pattern of selected exercises can be effective on stress, anxiety, depressive symptoms, and blood pressure and may be beneficial for renal transplant patients.

Keywords: Selected exercise, Stress, Anxiety, Depressive symptoms, Renal transplant