{"id":70903,"date":"2025-10-27T18:24:01","date_gmt":"2025-10-27T16:24:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.uol.ac.cy\/?p=70903"},"modified":"2025-10-27T18:24:09","modified_gmt":"2025-10-27T16:24:09","slug":"how-physical-activity-context-relates-to-cognition-across-the-lifespan-a-systematic-review-and-meta-analysis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.uol.ac.cy\/en\/how-physical-activity-context-relates-to-cognition-across-the-lifespan-a-systematic-review-and-meta-analysis\/","title":{"rendered":"How physical activity context relates to cognition across the lifespan: A systematic review and meta-analysis."},"content":{"rendered":"\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Abstract<\/h4>\n\n\n\n<p>Although numerous reviews and\u00a0meta-analyses have examined the effects of\u00a0physical activity\u00a0on\u00a0cognition, no previous\u00a0meta-analysis\u00a0has comprehensively explored the role of contextual factors. In this systematic review, we examined the role of contextual\u00a0moderators\u00a0along with more commonly investigated individual (e.g., age) and physical activity-related moderators (e.g.,\u00a0intensity, type). A multilevel meta-analysis was applied to 171\u00a0chronic\u00a0(654\u00a0effect sizes) and 68\u00a0acute\u00a0studies (305 effect sizes) involving 48,625 participants from preschool to older\u00a0adulthood. On\u00a0average, small positive effects on cognition were found for\u00a0participation\u00a0in both chronic (<em>g<\/em>\u00a0= 0.25, 95% CI [0.19, 0.31]) and acute physical activity (<em>g<\/em>\u00a0= 0.21, 95% CI [0.12, 0.30]). Physical activity effects on cognition seem to be jointly moderated by contextual and physical activity-related factors. The largest effect sizes were depicted for chronic practice of outdoor physical activity of moderate-to-vigorous intensity (<em>g<\/em>\u00a0= 0.63, 95% CI [0.41; 0.85]) and with high cognitive\u00a0demand\u00a0(<em>g<\/em>\u00a0= 0.53, 95% CI [0.15, 0.91]), and for acute bouts of outdoor physical activity of moderate intensity (<em>g<\/em>\u00a0= 0.71, 95% CI [0.42, 0.99]). These results may inform the design of future chronic and acute physical activity\u00a0trials\u00a0to foster a more comprehensive understanding of the intersection between multiple moderators.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p style=\"font-size:15px\"><em>Mavilidi, M. F., Vazou, S., Lubans, D. R., Robinson, K., Woods, A. J., Benzing, V., Anzeneder, S., Owen, K. B., \u00c1lvarez-Bueno, C., Wade, L., Burley, J., Thomas, G., Okely, A. D., &amp; Pesce, C. (2025). How physical activity context relates to cognition across the lifespan: A systematic review and meta-analysis.Psychological Bulletin, 151(5), 544\u2013579.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-uagb-buttons uagb-buttons__outer-wrap uagb-btn__default-btn uagb-btn-tablet__default-btn uagb-btn-mobile__default-btn uagb-block-31b64963\"><div class=\"uagb-buttons__wrap uagb-buttons-layout-wrap \">\n<div class=\"wp-block-uagb-buttons-child uagb-buttons__outer-wrap uagb-block-f5542f4b wp-block-button\"><div class=\"uagb-button__wrapper\"><a class=\"uagb-buttons-repeater wp-block-button__link\" aria-label=\"\" href=\"https:\/\/psycnet.apa.org\/fulltext\/2026-24348-002.html\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" role=\"button\"><div class=\"uagb-button__link\">learn more<\/div><span class=\"uagb-button__icon uagb-button__icon-position-after\"><svg xmlns=\"https:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" viewBox=\"0 0 448 512\" aria-hidden=\"true\" focussable=\"false\"><path d=\"M438.6 278.6l-160 160C272.4 444.9 264.2 448 256 448s-16.38-3.125-22.62-9.375c-12.5-12.5-12.5-32.75 0-45.25L338.8 288H32C14.33 288 .0016 273.7 .0016 256S14.33 224 32 224h306.8l-105.4-105.4c-12.5-12.5-12.5-32.75 0-45.25s32.75-12.5 45.25 0l160 160C451.1 245.9 451.1 266.1 438.6 278.6z\"><\/path><\/svg><\/span><\/a><\/div><\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Abstract Although numerous reviews and\u00a0meta-analyses have examined the effects of\u00a0physical activity\u00a0on\u00a0cognition, no previous\u00a0meta-analysis\u00a0has comprehensively explored the role of contextual factors. In this systematic review, we examined the role of contextual\u00a0moderators\u00a0along with more commonly investigated individual (e.g., age) and physical activity-related moderators (e.g.,\u00a0intensity, type). A multilevel meta-analysis was applied to 171\u00a0chronic\u00a0(654\u00a0effect sizes) and 68\u00a0acute\u00a0studies (305 effect [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":17,"featured_media":69145,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"none","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","_uag_custom_page_level_css":"","site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"set","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[123],"tags":[],"publication_author":[208],"publication_year":[189],"class_list":["post-70903","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-latest-publications","publication_author-myrto-mavilidi","publication_year-189"],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.uol.ac.cy\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/11_dr_myrto_mavilidi.jpg","uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/www.uol.ac.cy\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/11_dr_myrto_mavilidi.jpg",1200,628,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/www.uol.ac.cy\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/11_dr_myrto_mavilidi-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/www.uol.ac.cy\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/11_dr_myrto_mavilidi-300x157.jpg",300,157,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/www.uol.ac.cy\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/11_dr_myrto_mavilidi-768x402.jpg",768,402,true],"large":["https:\/\/www.uol.ac.cy\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/11_dr_myrto_mavilidi-1024x536.jpg",1024,536,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/www.uol.ac.cy\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/11_dr_myrto_mavilidi.jpg",1200,628,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/www.uol.ac.cy\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/11_dr_myrto_mavilidi.jpg",1200,628,false],"trp-custom-language-flag":["https:\/\/www.uol.ac.cy\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/11_dr_myrto_mavilidi-18x9.jpg",18,9,true]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"p.efstathiou@uol.ac.cy","author_link":"https:\/\/www.uol.ac.cy\/en\/author\/p-efstathiouuol-ac-cy\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"Abstract Although numerous reviews and\u00a0meta-analyses have examined the effects of\u00a0physical activity\u00a0on\u00a0cognition, no previous\u00a0meta-analysis\u00a0has comprehensively explored the role of contextual factors. In this systematic review, we examined the role of contextual\u00a0moderators\u00a0along with more commonly investigated individual (e.g., age) and physical activity-related moderators (e.g.,\u00a0intensity, type). A multilevel meta-analysis was applied to 171\u00a0chronic\u00a0(654\u00a0effect sizes) and 68\u00a0acute\u00a0studies (305 effect&hellip;","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/peAODB-irB","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-17 22:09:18","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uol.ac.cy\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70903","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uol.ac.cy\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uol.ac.cy\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uol.ac.cy\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/17"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uol.ac.cy\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=70903"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.uol.ac.cy\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70903\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uol.ac.cy\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/69145"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uol.ac.cy\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=70903"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uol.ac.cy\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=70903"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uol.ac.cy\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=70903"},{"taxonomy":"publication_author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uol.ac.cy\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/publication_author?post=70903"},{"taxonomy":"publication_year","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uol.ac.cy\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/publication_year?post=70903"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}