How does physical training affect sedentary long-term unemployed? : An intervention study in association with Halmstad Fastighet AB-Bureau

Abstract: Abstract Introduction: Unemployment cause poor health and poor health leads to unemployment. Those who are sedentary and experience unemployment may also experience negative effects on their physical and mental health such as obesity followed by cardiac illness, reduced muscle strength, chronic pain, anxiety and depression. All these factors can be categorised under physical and mental health, which are the essential factors for an optimal work ability. Methods: Our methods were to assess seven subjects (n = 7) of three male and four females, with the mean age of 35 ± 10 (25–54), who were all sedentary and long-term unemployed. These subjects were all part of a project organised by Halmstad Fastighet AB-Bureau (HFAB-Bureau) were they were undergoing education, coaching for employment and learning to apply for job. Our part in this project was to provide eight weeks of physical training to the subjects to reinforce their physical health which in turn supposed to improve their mental health. They were all assessed for grip strength with JAMAR® hydraulic hand dynamometer which represents overall muscle strength, BMI supplemented with waist circumference, blood pressure determination, self-assessing bodily pain with Visual Analogue Scale (VAS), anxiety and depression levels with Hospital Anxiety And Depression Scale (HADS) – a validated self-assessing questionnaire and Work Ability Index (WAI) by answering the self-assessing questionnaire for WAI. Results: T-test shows significance change in perceived pain over eight weeks of physical training as well as correlation between grip strength and perceived pain as well as anxiety and depression. No significant changes or correlations in remaining variables. Conclusion: Physical training contributes to decrease of chronic pain and physical training may give contribution to prevention of depression while increasing in muscle strength. Key word: Unemployment, mental health, physical health, physical training