Efficacy of a Combined Aerobic Exercise and Mindfulness Intervention on Depressive Symptoms: A Pilot Randomized Controlled Trial

Purpose: The current study aimed to preliminarily examine the effectiveness and acceptability of a combined exercise + mindfulness intervention on depressive symptoms among healthy Chinese university students (study 1) and those with subthreshold depression (study 2). Methods: Two 2 (intervention group vs. control group) × 2 (pretest vs. posttest) randomized controlled trials were conducted in healthy students without subthreshold depression and students with subthreshold depression, respectively. Description analysis, linear mixed-effects models, and qualitative analysis were used in both studies. Results: Results of both studies showed that the combined intervention was acceptable and effective in preventing and reducing depressive symptoms, with small effect sizes for healthy students ( d = −0.47) and large effect sizes for subthreshold depression students ( d = −1.51), respectively. Conclusions: The aerobic exercise plus mindfulness intervention was evidenced to be a preventive and therapeutic measure of depressive symptoms among university students.