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Physical Exercise, Stressful Life Experience, and Depression in Adults with Epilepsy
Author(s) -
Roth David L.,
Goode Kathryn T.,
Williams Valerie L.,
Faught Edward
Publication year - 1994
Publication title -
epilepsia
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.687
H-Index - 191
eISSN - 1528-1167
pISSN - 0013-9580
DOI - 10.1111/j.1528-1157.1994.tb01796.x
Subject(s) - psychosocial , depression (economics) , epilepsy , psychology , path analysis (statistics) , multivariate analysis , outpatient clinic , multivariate statistics , clinical psychology , medicine , psychiatry , statistics , mathematics , economics , macroeconomics
Summary: Adults with epilepsy completed self‐report measures of exercise participation, barriers to exercise, stressful life experience, depression, and general psycho‐social adjustment (n=133) as part of routine outpatient visits. Descriptive statistics showed lower levels of depression among patients who exercised regularly. Structural equation analyses confirmed the fit of a path model that included significant direct effects of exercise and stressful life experience on depression. These effects were independent of each other, and independent of the influence of other predictor variables, such as seizure frequency, age, and gender. Stressful life experience also had a direct unique effect on seizure frequency in the multivariate models. These results suggest that problems with depression, which are common in adults with epilepsy, are significantly lower among those who exercise regularly and avoid stressful life change.