Ninth International Conference on Health, Wellness & Society

Abstract

Physical inactivity is a leading risk factor for global mortality, increasing risk of all-cause mortality by 20% to 30% over those who meet recommended levels of physical activity (World Health Organization [WHO], 2018). Insufficient physical activity is directly related to an estimated 5.3 million deaths each year (Katzmarzyk, 2016). Weight-related health concerns remain serious modifiable public health issues around the globe. The associated risks of obesity include such leading causes of death as heart disease, stroke, diabetes, forms of cancer, poorer mental health outcomes and reduced quality of life (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention [CDC], 2016b). Physical activity has been shown effective in the treatment of depression, especially in conjunction with medication, and improve the quality of life (Mura, 2014; Schuch, et al., 2016). A pre-test post-test design was utilized to quantitatively test the implementation of a manualized walking intervention, “Walking for Well-being in the West” (Baker et al., 2008), to increase physical activity among adults with depressive symptoms in an outpatient setting. Baseline data was gathered on thirteen adult participants with depressive symptoms. Six participants completed the intervention. A paired samples t test revealed that, overall, the intervention significantly increased participants’ average daily step count at 12 weeks (M = 2222, SD = 824), t (5) = 6.61, p = .001. This project increased the physical activity among patients with depression in an outpatient setting, which adds to the literature the potential for expanding the settings in which physical activity interventions can be considered for a treatment modality.