ArticleEnvironmental health and preventive medicine2026
Exercising alone in men and group exercise in women are cross-sectionally associated with positive mental health among older Japanese.
Article in Environmental health and preventive medicine, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 1 paper.
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
1 citing paper in PubMed.
- Examining the Impact of Perceived and Objective Cognitive Function on Social Participation in Individuals With Multiple Sclerosis.Archives of physical medicine and rehabilitation · 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
3 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundAlthough previous studies have reported that exercising with others has a more beneficial effect on the health of older adults than exercising alone, gender differences in the association between exercise patterns and health are unknown. We investigated the cross-sectional association between exercise patterns and physical and mental health by gender.
methodsWe analyzed 4,211 men and 4,944 women aged ≥65 years without disabilities. Physical and mental health was assessed using the SF-8 Health Survey. Exercise patterns were measured based on three types: participation in exercise groups, non-group-based exercise with others, and exercising alone. Each exercise pattern was classified into five groups according to frequency and continuity: maintained frequent (i.e., daily or weekly), increase in frequency, maintained moderate (i.e., monthly or yearly), decrease in frequency, and continuing non-exercise. Modified Poisson regression with generalized estimating equations was used to estimate adjusted prevalence ratio (APR) for poor physical/mental health. Covariates included age, marital status, education, economic status, body mass index, chronic medical conditions, smoking, dietary variety, cognition, working status, and social participation.
resultsFor physical health, among both genders, all exercise patterns had a significant dose-response relationship between lower levels of exercise frequency and continuity and a higher prevalence of poor physical health, after adjustment for covariates and mutual adjustment for other exercise patterns (all P for trend <0.036). For mental health, among men, only exercising alone had a significant dose-response relationship (P for trend <0.001) [APR: 1.22 (95% CI: 1.07-1.39) for continuing non-exercise, 1.32 (1.11-1.57) for decrease in frequency, compared to maintained frequent]. Among women, the cross-sectional association with mental health was limited to participation in exercise groups (P for trend: 0.006) [APR: 1.24 (95% CI: 1.09-1.40) for continuing non-exercise, 1.26 (1.09-1.47) for decrease in frequency, and 1.37 (1.13-1.66) for maintained moderate, compared to maintained frequent].
conclusionsAll exercise patterns were cross-sectionally associated with physical health across genders. However, mental health outcomes varied: Cross-sectional associations with mental health were observed for men when exercising alone, and for women when exercising in groups. These results highlight the importance of gender-sensitive public health strategies, such as tailored community exercise programs. Due to the cross-sectional design, causality cannot be determined. However, the results do suggest that future longitudinal research is needed.
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.