A Systematic Review of the Relationship Between Physical Activity and Happiness

Abstract

This study aimed to examine the relationship between physical activity and happiness through systematically reviewing the existing literature. A systematic search of major databases including PubMed/Medline, PsychInfo, SportDiscus, and Embase was performed in 2017 for original research articles published post-1980 with the related keywords of happiness and physical activity. From 1142 retrieved records, fifteen observational studies (thirteen cross-sectional studies and two longitudinal studies) and eight intervention studies (six randomized controlled trials and two non-randomized trials) were included for further analysis. These studies involved a wide range of population from various countries and areas. All the observational studies reported positive associations between physical activity and happiness. As little as 10-min physical activity per week or 1 day of doing exercise per week might result in increased levels of happiness. Mediation effects were examined in two studies indicating the positive relationship between physical activity and happiness might be mediated by health and social functioning. The randomized controlled trials mostly focused on older adults and cancer survivors, and suggested that both aerobic exercise and stretching/balancing exercise were effective in improving happiness. Evidence showed a consistent positive relationship between physical activity and happiness. However, due to the limited number of randomized controlled trials, we cannot draw firm conclusions regarding the causal relationship between physical activity and happiness. Future research is suggested to explore the mechanism of how physical activity influences happiness and to determine the optimal dose and type of physical activity for gaining the benefits of happiness.

Leisure Time Sports Activities and Life Satisfaction: Deeper Insights Based on a Representative Survey from Germany

“…Although a large body of literature already showed that LTSA is associated with higher well-being and life satisfaction (Wiese et al 2018;White et al 2017;Zhang and Chen 2019), this paper contributes to the state of knowledge by pointing out several relevant specifications of this relationship. First, we showed that the amount of LTSA is associated with life satisfaction as well as with satisfaction in the domains of leisure, appearance, social relations, work and health.…”

“…Positive links between physical activity and well-being were found in all age groups, including youths (McMahon et al 2017), students (Jetzke and Mutz 2019), adults (Downward and Dawson 2016;Marques et al 2016) and the elderly (Lera-López et al 2017). Recent reviews based on observational and intervention studies (Wiese et al 2018;White et al 2017;Zhang and Chen 2019) conclude that even small amounts of additional physical activity lead to significant increases in wellbeing.…”

Relationship between sufficient leisure-time physical activity and happiness: Age stratification perspective

“…A cohort study [13] analyzed the long-term effects of LTPA on happiness and indicated that people who continue participating in LTPA for 2 and 4 years could reduce the likelihood of unhappiness compare to those who were physically inactive. Recently, Zhang and Chen [14] systematically reviewed 23 studies on the association between physical activity and happiness, found that as little as 10 minutes of physical activity per week or one time of doing physical activity per…”

The Reciprocal Effects of Physical Activity and Happiness in Adolescents

“…Physical activity is generally presumed to be associated with experiences of happiness in adolescents [7,8]. An extensive set of studies has shown that there is a positive association between physical activity and happiness in the wider population, including adolescents (for a review see: [9]). More speci cally, previous cross-sectional studies have demonstrated a positive association between self-reported physical activity and mental well-being [10,11] or happiness in adolescents [12][13][14].…”

“…Second, the aforementioned studies were not designed to test the directionality of the association between physical activity and happiness as they used cross-sectional designs or lacked repeated measures of either physical activity or happiness [9,27,28]. To determine the directionality, longitudinal (or repeated) observations are needed [29].…”