SynthesisFrontiers in human neuroscience2026
Effects of exercise on cognitive function in older adults: a systematic review and meta-analysis of the mediating role of sleep.
Synthesis in Frontiers in human neuroscience, 2026. 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
5 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Background: Sleep disturbances affect nearly half of older adults and are linked to cognitive decline, yet the mechanistic pathways linking exercise to cognitive benefits remain poorly understood. We hypothesized that sleep quality mediates the exercise-cognition relationship in older adults. Methods: We systematically searched PubMed, Web of Science, Cochrane CENTRAL, Embase, and PsycINFO from inception to June 2026 for randomized controlled trials examining structured exercise interventions (≥4 weeks) in adults aged ≥60 years that reported both cognitive and sleep outcomes. Random-effects meta-analyses and meta-analytic structural equation modeling (MASEM) were used to test the mediation hypothesis. Subgroup analyses examined baseline cognitive status and intervention duration. Results: Eight studies (841 participants) were included. Exercise significantly improved cognitive function (SMD = 1.32, 95% CI: 0.70-1.94) and sleep quality (SMD = -1.13, 95% CI: -1.73 to -0.53). MASEM confirmed sleep quality as a significant partial mediator, with an indirect effect of β = 0.300 (95% CI: 0.125-0.404), accounting for 50.8% of the total cognitive benefit. The mediation proportion was larger in individuals with mild cognitive impairment (67.6%) than in cognitively healthy older adults (31.9%). Conclusion: Sleep quality significantly mediates the exercise-cognition relationship in older adults, accounting for approximately half of the cognitive benefit. These findings identify sleep as a candidate mechanistic target for optimizing exercise interventions, though larger mediation-designed trials are needed to confirm these exploratory estimates.
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.