Effects of 12 Weeks of At-Home, Application-Based Exercise on Health Care Workers' Depressive Symptoms, Burnout, and Absenteeism: A Randomized Clinical Trial.

Importance: During the COVID-19 pandemic, health care workers (HCWs) reported a significant decline in their mental health. One potential health behavior intervention that has been shown to be effective for improving mental health is exercise, which may be facilitated by taking advantage of mobile application (app) technologies.

Objective: To determine the extent to which a 12-week app-based exercise intervention can reduce depressive symptoms, burnout, and absenteeism in HCWs, compared with a wait list control condition.

COVID-19 Pandemic and Exercise (COPE) trial: a multigroup pragmatic randomised controlled trial examining effects of app-based at-home exercise programs on depressive symptoms.

Background: The number of adults across the globe with significant depressive symptoms has grown substantially during the COVID-19 pandemic. The extant literature supports exercise as a potent behaviour that can significantly reduce depressive symptoms in clinical and non-clinical populations.

Objective: Using a suite of mobile applications, at-home exercise, including high intensity interval training (HIIT) and/or yoga, was completed to reduce depressive symptoms in the general population in the early months of the pandemic.