Meta analysis of the effectiveness of types of exercises on reducing depressive symptoms of nursing home residents

Objectives This study compared the effectiveness of four types of exercises (aerobic, resistance, mind-body and multicomponent) in reducing depressive symptoms among nursing home residents.Methods Five databases were searched for studies published between 2004 and 2026 that examined the effects of exercise interventions on depressive symptoms among nursing home residents with a mean age of at least 65 years. Meta-regression was used to investigate the effects of exercise type on depressive symptoms, controlling for the characteristics of intervention and participants, and study quality.Results Thirty-four studies were identified. Aerobic exercise did not have significant effect (g = −0.26, p = 0.10). Although mind-body exercises (g = −0.88, p < 0.01) demonstrated a larger effect than resistance exercise (g = −0.30, p = 0.02) and multicomponent exercises (g = −0.24, p = 0.01), when controlling for the covariates, the strength of evidence remained limited due to the small number of studies examining mind-body exercises (n = 6).Conclusion More rigorous studies are needed before making definitive recommendations on the use of mind-body exercises in nursing homes.