SYSTEMATIC REVIEW article
Front. Public Health
Sec. Children and Health
Volume 13 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2025.1555029
This article is part of the Research TopicAdolescent Oral, Mental and Sexual WellnessView all 3 articles
Aerobic exercise strategies for anxiety and depression among children and adolescents: A systematic review and meta-analysis
Provisionally accepted
- 1Harbin Normal University, Harbin, China
- 2Central Hospital of Heilongjiang Provincial Prison Administration, Harbin, China
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Objective: To investigate the effects of exercise intensity, frequency, session duration, and intervention period in aerobic exercise programs on alleviating depression and anxiety symptoms among children and adolescents, aiming to develop suitable aerobic exercise plans for them.All articles published between the database inception year and November 2024 were obtained from PubMed, Scopus, and Web of Science. A meta-analysis was conducted using RevMan 5.4.The analysis included data from 19 randomized controlled trials involving 2,093 children and adolescents. Aerobic exercise demonstrated significant improvements in anxiety (SMD = -0.32, 95% CI: -0.60, -0.03; p < 0.00001) and depression (SMD = -0.64, 95% CI: -0.94, -0.33, p < 0.00001). Specifically for anxiety symptoms, session of 60-75 minutes showed significant effects (SMD = -1.65, 95% CI: -3.25, -0.06, p < 0.00001), frequency of 3-4 times/week was most effective (SMD = -0.42, 95% CI: -0.74, -0.10, p = 0.001), and interventions exceeding 12 weeks achieved significance(SMD = -0.51, 95% CI: -0.89, -0.14, p = 0.002). For depression symptoms, 60-75 minute sessions produced significant effects (SMD = -0.78, 95% CI: -1.24, -0.33, p= 0.001), 3-4 sessions/week yielded optimal outcomes (SMD = -0.78, 95% CI: -1.09, -0.46, p < 0.00001), and shorter duration of 5-8 weeks showed significance (SMD = -1.22, 95% CI: -1.79, -0.65, p < 0.0001).For anxiety symptoms in children and adolescents, we recommend a high-intensity exercise regimen (60-89% VO2max, 60-75 minutes/session, 3-4 sessions/week), with an optimal intervention duration of over 12 weeks. For depressive symptoms, we propose a moderate-to-high intensity protocol (40-89% VO2max) with the same session duration and frequency, but a shorter optimal duration of 5-8 weeks.
Keywords: aerobic exercise (AE), Anxiety, Depression, Children, adolescents
Received: 03 Jan 2025; Accepted: 09 Jun 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Song, Ge, Wang, Ran and Zhang. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Huishan Song, Harbin Normal University, Harbin, China
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