Research
Adherence
Physical activity improves Quality of Life (QOL), with the greatest improvements observed in patients with mental health conditions, followed by cardiovascular disease and cancer patients.
If you are managing a chronic condition, especially mental health issues, cardiovascular disease, or cancer, regular exercise can significantly improve your daily quality of life. Try to aim for longer sessions (over 90 minutes) if possible, as they may offer greater QOL benefits, but start with what you can tolerate.
GoodSupportsMEDIUM confidence
Data from 15 CSRs and 408 RCTs with 32,984 participants showed a small improvement in quality of life (QOL) standardised mean difference (SMD) 0.18 [95% CI 0.08, 0.28]... Subgroup analyses by the type of condition showed that the magnitude of effect size was the largest among patients with mental health conditions.
Why this rating
Based on 408 RCTs, though heterogeneity (I2=74.3%) is noted.
Source
Exercise/physical activity and health outcomes: an overview of Cochrane systematic reviews
Paul Posadzki et al. · BMC Public Health · 2020
DOI 10.1186/s12889-020-09855-3
Meta-analysis · 150 studiesCited 489×
Read the paper DOI resolved against Crossref · corpus check 2026-06-10
More from this paper
- Regular physical activity or exercise reduces all-cause mortality by approximately 13% compared to control groups, with the magnitude of benefit being larger for patients with cardiovascular disease than for other populations.Good
- Exercise is generally safe with minimal adverse events, which are typically mild, transient, and comparable to control groups, though reporting of adverse events is often poor in studies.Moderate
Related findings · Adherence
- Regular physical activity (at least 150 minutes/week of moderate-intensity) reduces all-cause and cardiovascular mortality by 20-30% and lowers the risk of type 2 diabetes by 25-35%.Strong
- Increasing physical activity from a sedentary lifestyle to an active one in middle adulthood significantly reduces the risk of coronary events compared to remaining sedentary.Strong
- Resistance exercise is the only intervention capable of consistently restoring muscle function and strength in sarcopenia, partially overcoming age-related anabolic resistance.Strong
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