SynthesisApplied psychology. Health and well-being2025
Within-person association between affect and physical activity related to depressive symptomatology: A systematic review and methodological reflections.
Synthesis in Applied psychology. Health and well-being, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 2 papers, 1 of them a synthesis 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
2 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- Within-person association between affect and physical activity related to depressive symptomatology: A systematic review and methodological reflections.Applied psychology. Health and well-being · 2025Pooled it
- Group, Subgroup and Person-Specific Longitudinal Associations Between Physical Activity and Affect in Individuals With and Without Depressive and Anxiety Disorders.International journal of methods in psychiatric research · 2026Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
8 authors.
Funding
Abstract
Physical activity can improve mental health by improving mood and by lowering depressive symptoms. This systematic review uses a structured narrative synthesis to summarise within-person associations between physical activity and affect in naturalistic settings, and how these associations may differ by level of depressive symptomatology. We also reviewed the methodological choices that could influence these outcomes and provide a methodological roadmap as a recommendation for future studies. A systematic review was conducted up to December 2024 of studies that addressed within-person associations between daily physical activity and affect using ambulatory assessment techniques in individuals aged 4-65 years and assessed depressive symptoms. Our selection yielded 32 eligible studies. A consistent finding was the positive within-person association between physical activity and concurrent or subsequent positive affect, while results were mixed for negative affect. Results were further inconclusive regarding the role of depression in this relationship. Common challenges affecting replicability include an often-inadequate assessment of measurement reliability and validity, and insufficient controls for relevant (contextual) factors in these analyses, such as the length of the time-lag and mode of physical activity. Future studies should employ emerging best practices regarding study design, analysis and reporting of ambulatory assessment data. Such rigorous research practice will strengthen our understanding of these relationships and further inform more effective, personalised physical activity interventions to improve mood and depressive symptoms.
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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.