OBJECTIVE: To determine whether a 12-week home-based walking programme can decrease perceived stress and depressive symptoms in persons with a traumatic brain injury (TBI). Setting: Community- and home-based. Participants: Sixty-nine participants with a TBI.
DESIGN: Comparative effectiveness cross-over design with random assignment to treatment sequence and blinded post-hoc assessment of outcome where participants completed a 12-week walking intervention and a nutrition education module. The walking intervention utilized pedometers to track the amount of steps each participant walked daily. With the assistance of an assigned coach, weekly goals were given with the intent of increasing the amount of walking that the participant was initially completing. The nutrition control group was created to offset the impact of the coaching calls. Main measures: Measurement of perceived stress and depressive symptoms was completed through the use of the Perceived Stress Scale (PSS) and Center for Epidemiological Studies-Depression (CES-D). These measures were collected at three time points: baseline and following each 12-week intervention.
RESULTS: Results indicated that both perceived stress and depression symptoms significantly improved following the walking intervention.
CONCLUSIONS: While limitations existed with the study, it is evident that walking can be used as an efficient and cost-effective tool to manage perceived stress and depressive symptoms in persons who have sustained a TBI.