title: Intervention of Collective Exercise on the Mental Health of Elderly Hypertensive Patients.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Anxiety, depression, and other adverse psychological reactions are often observed in elderly hypertensive patients. Appropriate exercise is a safe form of adjuvant therapy without causing side effects among these patients, with consistent effects on patients' mental health. In this study, a collective exercise intervention experiment was conducted to evaluate the mental health of elderly hypertensive patients and to verify the effect of the psychological intervention of collective exercise.
  
  
  METHODS
  A total of 115 elderly hypertensive patients aged 60-70 years old were selected as study subjects from May 2012 to January 2015 in Fuzhou City, Fujian Province, China. A total of 57 patients were included in the control group and 58 patients were assigned in the experimental group. Patients in the experimental group participated in a 12 weeks exercise intervention, while patients in the control group didn't participate in any regular physical exercise.
  
  
  RESULTS
  After intervention, the Symptom Checklist-90 (SCL-90), total score, somatization, obsessive-compulsive symptom, interpersonal sensitivity, depression, anxiety, hostility, and paranoia scores of the experimental group were significantly lower than those of the control group (P < 0.05). The positive coping style score of the experimental group was significantly higher than that of the control group (P<0.05); by contrast, the negative coping style score of the experimental group was significantly lower than that of the control group (P < 0.05).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The mental health level and coping ability of elderly hypertensive patients can be effectively improved with the proposed treatment.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Physical Education and Sport Science, Fujian Normal University, Fuzhou, Fujian, 350007, China.
authors.forename: Wenxin
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Xu
authors.affiliation: Physical Education Institute, Hunan First Normal University, Changsha, Hunan, 410205, China.
authors.forename: Menglong
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: Physical Education Institute, Hunan University of Science and Technology, Xiangtan, Hunan, 411201, China.
authors.forename: Jiwei
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Yao
keywords: Collective exercise; Elderly people; Hypertension; Mental health