ArticlePLOS mental health2025
The psychosocial impact of exercise as an intervention for persons living with obesity and female infertility: A rapid scoping review and pilot study.
Article in PLOS mental health, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Not yet cited in PubMed.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
0 citing papers in PubMed.
No citing paper in PubMed yet.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
9 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Persons living with obesity and experiencing infertility are counselled on healthy behaviours, such as increasing physical activity levels, to improve fertility-related outcomes. However, due to the known psychological burden of receiving an infertility diagnosis, there is an important need to consider the psychosocial impact of administering exercise programming for this population. This study aims to assess the psychosocial impact of exercise-based interventions on individuals with obesity and infertility through a rapid scoping review and a pilot study. The rapid scoping review was conducted in MedLine, Embase, and CINAHL. Studies involving exercise-based lifestyle interventions for people with obesity and infertility were included only if they measured a psychosocial outcome as a primary or secondary measure. Expanding upon evidence from our rapid review, a pre-experimental feasibility study (pre-test, post-test with one group) was conducted. The pilot study implemented a virtual exercise intervention for people with obesity and experiencing infertility. Questionnaires measuring anxiety and depression, quality of life (QoL), social support, fertility-related stress, and hopelessness were administered. Based on the nine articles from our rapid review, there is evidence that lifestyle interventions combining exercise, diet, and psychobehavioral components improve psychosocial outcomes like anxiety, depression, QoL, and self-esteem. In our pilot study, 11 participants (Age: 34 ± 3.7, BMI: 40.3 ± 4.54) engaged in the virtual exercise intervention, and seven completed the post-intervention questionnaires. The results of our pilot study showed improvements in depression, hopelessness, physical QoL, and fertility-related stress scores. However, we observed declines in anxiety, mental QoL, and perceived social support measures. Our mixed findings may be due to the unique context of our pilot study. The study took place during the COVID-19 pandemic, where increased stress, anxiety, and isolation, negatively impacted fertility patients. Additionally, the virtual intervention, required by restrictions, may have reduced social interaction and support, worsening one's mental health.
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.