The association between cardiorespiratory fitness and the incidence of common mental health disorders: A systematic review and meta-analysis
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BACKGROUND: Physical activity is associated with a lower incidence of common mental health disorder, but less is known about the impact of cardiorespiratory fitness (CRF). METHODS: In this review, we systematically evaluated the relationship between CRF and the incidence of common mental health disorders in prospective cohort studies. We systematically searched six major electronic databases from inception to 23rd of May 2019. We assessed study quality using the Newcastle-Ottawa scale. RESULTS: = 87.20) CRF are associated with a 47% and 23% greater risk of a common mental health disorders respectively, compared with high CRF. We found evidence to suggest a dose-response relationship between CRF and the risk of common mental health disorders. LIMITATIONS: We were only able to identify a small number of eligible studies from our search and heterogeneity was substantial in the subsequent meta-analysis. CONCLUSIONS: Our findings indicate that there is a longitudinal association between CRF levels and the risk of a common mental health disorder. CRF levels could be useful for identifying and preventing common mental health disorders at a population-level.
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Cardiorespiratory fitness reduces risk of psychiatric disorders.
“with growing evidence of cardiorespiratory fitness itself reducing risk of psychiatric disorders 85-87”
From A meta-review of "lifestyle psychiatry": the role of exercise, smoking, diet and sleep in the prevention and treatment of mental disorders (2020) · cites this paper as [85]
The Conclusion reports that lower cardiorespiratory fitness is associated with greater risk of common mental health disorders, with a dose-response relationship. It does not establish that fitness itself causes the risk reduction, and its findings concern common mental health disorders rather than psychiatric disorders generally. Page numbers were not available in our copy. (LLM, conf=0.88)
Experimental — accuracy not yet measuredThere is a dose-response association between greater PA and mental health functioning across various exercise modalities, even after accounting for numerous social, medical, and behavioral confounds.
“Across various exercise modalities, there appears to be a dose-response association between greater PA and mental health functioning (4), even after accounting for numerous social, medical, and behavioral confounds, such as smoking (OR = 0.67, 95% CI 0.61–0.75) (5).”
From The Role of Exercise in Management of Mental Health Disorders: An Integrative Review (2021) · cites this paper as [4]
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References 89 · Cited by 172
Research works printed but not linked: 1
- Dishman R.K. Sui X. Church T.S. Hand G.A. Trivedi M.H. Blair S.N. Decline in cardiorespiratory fitness and odds of incident depression Am. J. Prev. Med. 43 4 2012 361 368 Retrieved from https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0749379712004369 22992353 PMC3478961
- Authors
- Kandola, A., Ashdown-Franks, G., Stubbs, B., Osborn, D. P. J., & Hayes, J. F.
- Affiliations
- University College London (GB)
- King's College London (GB)
- Corresponding author
- Kandola, A.
- Venue
- Journal of Affective Disorders
- Publisher
- Elsevier BV
- Published
- 2019-10
- Volume
- 257
- Pages
- 748-757
- ISSN
- 0165-0327 (ISSN-L)
- PMC
- PMC6997883
- OpenAlex
- W2964850361
- Cited by
- 172
- References
- 89
- Citations by year
- 2026: 16 · 2025: 33 · 2024: 33 · 2023: 28 · 2022: 24 · 2021: 17 · 2020: 19 · 2019: 2
- FWCI
- 1.82
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- hybrid
- doi.org
- Licence
- Locations
- Journal of Affective Disorders (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Research Portal (King's College London) (submittedVersion, cc-by)
- UCL Discovery (University College London) (submittedVersion)
- Funders
- Economic and Social Research Council
- Topics
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Physiology › Physical Activity and Health
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Cardiology and Cardiovascular Medicine › Cardiac Health and Mental Health
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Complementary and alternative medicine › Cardiovascular and exercise physiology
- Keywords
- cardiorespiratory fitness, common mental disorders, depression, anxiety, incidence, physical activity, dose-response relationship, mental health prevention
- MeSH terms
- Cardiorespiratory Fitness, Adult, Mental Disorders, Female, Humans, Male, Prospective Studies, Risk Factors, Incidence, Proportional Hazards Models
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