Effects of a Multi-Professional Intervention on Mental Health of Middle-Aged Overweight Survivors of COVID-19: A Clinical Trial

Abstract
The present study aimed to investigate the effects of a multi-professional intervention model on the mental health of middle-aged, overweight survivors of COVID-19. A clinical trial study with parallel groups and repeated measures was conducted. For eight weeks, multi-professional interventions were conducted (psychoeducation, nutritional intervention, and physical exercises). One hundred and thirty-five overweight or obese patients aged 46.46 ± 12.77 years were distributed into four experimental groups: mild, moderate, severe COVID, and control group. The instruments were used: mental health continuum-MHC, revised impact scale–IES-r, generalized anxiety disorder-GAD-7, and Patient health questionnaire PHQ-9, before and after eight weeks. The main results indicated only a time effect, with a significant increase in global MHC scores, emotional well-being, social well-being, and psychological well-being, as well as detected a significant reduction in global IES-R scores, intrusion, avoidance, and hyperarousal, in addition to a reduction in GAD-7 and PHQ-9 scores (p < 0.05). In conclusion, it was possible to identify those psychoeducational interventions that effectively reduced anxiety, depression, and post-traumatic stress symptoms in post-COVID-19 patients, regardless of symptomatology, in addition to the control group. However, moderate and severe post-COVID-19 patients need to be monitored continuously since the results of these groups did not follow the response pattern of the mild and control groups.
Description
Keywords
Coronavirus, Health impact assessment, Psychosocial intervention, Rehabilitation research
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