SynthesisSports health
Are Physical Activity Interventions Effective in Improving Health-Related Quality of Life in Children and Adolescents? A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.
Synthesis in Sports health. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 26 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
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
26 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 25 citations in OpenAlex.
- Quality of life and physical activity in type 1 diabetes.BMC pediatrics · 2025Pooled it
- Umbrella review of international evidence for the effectiveness of school-based physical activity interventions.PloS one · 2024Pooled it
- Effectiveness of a High-Intensity Interval Games Program in Extra-Curricular Context (MOVI-daFIT!) on Gross Motor Competence and Health-Related Quality of Life in Primary Schoolchildren: Cluster-Randomized Trial.European journal of sport science · 2025Trial
- Physical Activity Before, During, and After the School Day and Its Impact on Positive Psychological Variables: A Systematic Review and Practical Guide.Healthcare (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Review
- Physical Activity, Sleep Quality, Physical Fitness, and Academic Performance as Factors Associated with Health-Related Quality of Life in Primary and Secondary School Students from the Canary Islands.Healthcare (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Article
- Health-related quality of life in school-aged boys and girls: longitudinal associations with physical activity and sedentary behaviour in the HAPPY study.BMC pediatrics · 2026Article
- Physical Activity Interventions for Mental Health Among Youth in South Africa: A Scoping Review.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2026Article
- Physical fitness as a predictor of health-related quality of life in children.Frontiers in sports and active living · 2026Article
- School-based physical activity and adolescent mental health: candidate psychological mechanisms, contextual moderators, and unresolved controversies.Frontiers in psychology · 2026Review
- Physical activity and health-related quality of life among Chinese adolescents: a cross-sectional statistical path model involving sleep disturbance and depressive symptoms.Frontiers in pediatrics · 2026Article
- Linking physical activity to health-related quality of life among middle-aged adults: the mediating roles of resilience and physical exercise self-efficacy.Frontiers in public health · 2026Article
- Psychological and behavioral characteristics of overweight and obese Chinese college students with high stress.BMC psychology · 2025Article
- Association Between Physical Activity, Sedentary Time, and Quality of Life in Patients with Chagas Disease During COVID-19 Pandemic in Brazil: A Cross-Sectional Study.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2025Article
- How are 24-hour movement guidelines linked to health-related quality of life in Spanish children and adolescents?BMC public health · 2025Article
- A mixed methods exploration of the experiences of physical activity providers in supporting children and adolescents with type 1 diabetes in the UK.European journal of pediatrics · 2025Article
- Definitions of determinants of physical activity behaviour: process and outcome of consensus from the DE-PASS expert group.The international journal of behavioral nutrition and physical activity · 2025Article
- More active, less aggressive! Understanding how physical activity reduces aggressive behavior among Chinese adolescents: a three-wave mediation model.Frontiers in psychology · 2025Article
- Editorial: Schools as an arena for health-promoting physical activity.Frontiers in sports and active living · 2025Article
- Effects of a school-based intervention on 24-hour movement behaviors in adolescents: A quasi-experimental study.PloS one · 2025Article
- Random forest-based identification and ranking of predictive factors for physical activity in Chinese college students.Frontiers in public health · 2025Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
6 authors at 2 institutions in 3 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
contextPhysical activity (PA) interventions improve well-being and positive mental health in children and adolescents, but the results of previous systematic reviews included participants with chronic medical conditions and did not accurately assess the multidimensional nature of health-related quality of life (HRQoL).
objectiveThe aims of this meta-analysis were to (1) evaluate the effects of PA interventions on several domains of HRQoL in healthy <18-year-olds and (2) examine the effectiveness of interventions on HRQoL according to whether they were successful in increasing PA, the type of intervention delivered, and the duration of the intervention. DATA SOURCES: PubMed (Medline), EMBASE, the Cochrane Library, SCIELO, SPORTDiscus, and PEDro databases were systematically searched from inception to September 30, 2022. STUDY SELECTION: Experimental studies that examined the effectiveness of PA interventions on HRQoL participants aged <18 years. STUDY
designSystematic review with meta-analysis and meta-regression. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: Level 1.
methodsRandom-effects models were used to calculate pooled effect size (ES) for total HRQoL score and its dimensions. Subgroup analyses were conducted to examine the effect of PA program characteristics.
resultsA total of 17 studies were included. Pooled ES (95% CI) estimations were as follows: 0.179 (0.045, 0.002) for total HRQoL score, 0.192 (0.077, 0.306) for physical well-being, 0.158 (0.080, 0.237) for psychological well-being, 0.118 (0.044, 0.192) for autonomy and parent relation, 0.135 (0.043, 0.227) for social support and peers, and 0.129 (-0.013, 0.270) for school environment. Subgroup analyses suggested there were no differences in the effectiveness of the interventions by category of PA increase or by type and duration of intervention.
conclusionExercise interventions are an effective strategy for improving overall HRQoL and its most significant domains in children and adolescents.
Indexed as
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.