Pilot aerobic exercise intervention for youth at-risk for serious mental illness

Effects of Aerobic Exercise on Sleep Quality and Mental Health of College Students

Objective

In recent years, people's living standards have been greatly improved, but at the same time, it also brings many health problems, among which mental health problems and sleep problems of college students are important problems. The aim of the study is to explore the effect of physical activity intervention on college students' mental health and provide a new way of thinking for colleges and universities to carry out mental health interventions.

Methods

This paper focuses on the physical health problems of college students and explores the relationship between aerobic exercise, emotion, and sleep quality among college students. The SPSS statistical method was used to analyze the differences in aerobic exercise, emotion, and sleep quality among college students in terms of demographic variables; to explore the relationship between aerobic exercise, emotion, and sleep quality; and to construct a structural equation model using the relationship between them. Results/Discussion. This study explores the relationship between aerobic exercise and sleep quality and psychological health of college students, further analyzes the path model of the role of aerobic exercise and psychological health on sleep quality of college students, and verifies it through experiments, which proves to help universities and relevant departments understand the current situation of exercise and sleep quality of college students and provide timely and effective design of mandatory aerobic exercise courses for college students who lack exercise and have sleep problems. At the same time, it helps college students to understand their sleep situation and adjust their aerobic exercise courses according to their sleep status.

Urban Forest Health Intervention Program to promote physical activity, healthy eating, self-efficacy and life satisfaction: impact on Israeli at-risk youth

The aim of this study was to evaluate an urban forest intervention program effect on physical activity, healthy eating habits, self-efficacy and life satisfaction (LS) among Israeli at-risk youth. The quasi-experimental study ran from September 2016 to June 2017; participants were randomly selected. There were 76 total study participants: 53 in the intervention and 23 in the control group. Participants ranged in age from 15 to 18 years. Questionnaires were administered to intervention and control groups before and after the intervention. Univariate and multivariable analyses evaluated the intervention effect. Repeated measures analyses of covariance were calculated to assess change in group differences. An increase was found in measures of physical activity in the intervention group (p < 0.001), while no change was noted in the control group. Healthy eating increased in both groups (p = 0.007), with no significant difference between them (p = 0.165). Unhealthy eating decreased significantly in the intervention group (p = 0.002) and increased in the control group (p = 0.007). Self-efficacy increased in the intervention group (p < 0.001), while no change was noted in the control group (p = 0.353). Likewise, LS increased in the intervention group (p < 0.001), while no change was found in the control group (p = 0.657). Findings indicate that the intervention was efficacious in increasing physical activity, healthy eating habits, self-efficacy, and LS. The effectiveness of this intervention among larger samples is warranted in future prospective studies.