Aussie school-based 'Health4Life' program sees only short term improvements in mental health symptoms

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Australia; NSW
Image by Igor Ovsyannykov from Pixabay
Image by Igor Ovsyannykov from Pixabay

An Australian school-based health program, which targets six lifestyle risk factors: diet, sleep, physical activity, screentime, alcohol use and smoking, has shown no improvement over usual health education in reducing depressive, anxiety or psychological distress symptoms after 1 or 2 years. However, the researchers found that around seven weeks after completing the course, there were short-term benefits for both depressive and psychological distress symptoms. The researchers say 
further work is needed to understand how to sustain these effects over the long-term.

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Research Springer Nature, Web page Please link to the article in online versions of your report (the URL will go live after the embargo ends).
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conference:
Nature Mental Health
Research:Paper
Organisation/s: The University of Sydney
Funder: The Health4Life study was funded by the Paul Ramsay Foundation and the Australian National Health and Medical Research Council via Fellowships (grant nos. APP1120641 to K.C., APP1078407 to M.T. and APP1166377 to N.N.) and via a Centre of Research Excellence in the Prevention and Early Intervention in Mental Illness and Substance Use (PREMISE; APP11349009). Open access funding provided by the University of Sydney.
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