Mood improves with movement, and vice versa: Study of 3 lakh reports

An international study that analysed data from 67 research groups worldwide, involving over three lakh real-time mood reports, on how physical activity is related to good mood and positive emotions has found that for most people, mood improves with everyday movement.

The findings, published in the journal Nature Human Behaviour, also show that people are more physically active when they are feeling better.

Researchers, including those from Ruhr University Bochum in Germany and other institutes in Europe and the US, examined data from more than 8,000 participants collected through smartphones and wearable devices.

The tools allowed the researchers to capture how people felt and moved throughout their daily routines — from walking and climbing stairs to household activities, they said.

“Within persons, PA (physical activity) displays a positive association with energetic arousal, positive affective states and valence, yet a negative relation to calmness,” the authors wrote.

“The practical effect sizes are comparable to other daily life activities, with energetic arousal evincing the strongest relation to PA,” they said.

For most individuals, mood was found to improve following everyday physical activity, and conversely, people were found more likely to move when already feeling positive.

Energy levels showed the strongest relationship, with more than 95 per cent of the participants reporting an increased energy around periods of activity.

Individuals with a lower well-being to begin with experienced the greatest benefits from physical activity, the study found.

“This study reflects the growing importance of understanding health behaviors in real-world settings,” co-author Amanda Staiano, of Pennington Biomedical Research Center, Louisiana State University, US, said.

“By incorporating data from diverse populations from around the world — including participants studied here at Pennington Biomedical — we’re gaining a clearer picture of how even small amounts of daily movement can meaningfully impact how people feel,” Staiano said.

Evidence from the study confirms a strong link between physical activity and well-being, previously shown in controlled, laboratory settings and cross-sectional (short-term) studies, the researchers said.

The study examines physical activity and well-being under natural, everyday conditions made possible by smartphones and wearables, and helped the researchers distinguish between how activity affects individuals over time and how people compare to one another.

The researchers noted that more work is needed to determine causality and to understand why some individuals respond differently to exercise. Future studies will aim to identify the personal and environmental factors that shape these responses, they said.