SYSTEMATIC REVIEW article
Front. Public Health
Sec. Aging and Public Health
Volume 13 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2025.1617272
This article is part of the Research TopicBiomechanics of Aging: Advances in Exercise and Intervention Strategies for Older Adult WellnessView all 11 articles
The effect of physical exercise on apathy in older adults: a systematic review and meta-analysis
Provisionally accepted
- Southwest University, Chongqing, China
Select one of your emails
You have multiple emails registered with Frontiers:
Notify me on publication
Please enter your email address:
If you already have an account, please login
You don't have a Frontiers account ? You can register here
The objectives of this systematic review and meta-analysis were to evaluate the overall efficacy of physical exercise on apathy in older adults and to provide evidence for alleviating and improving apathy. Methods: This study was conducted following the PRISMA guidelines and the Cochrane Handbook for the Evaluation of Systems of Intervention. A comprehensive search was performed across databases, including Cochrane, EMBASE, PubMed, and Web of Science, with a cutoff date of January 2025. Data extraction, organization, and quality assessment were performed using appropriate software. Stata was used to analyze and process the data and test for publication bias. Results: The analysis included 9 RCTs involving a total of 356 participants. The meta-analysis revealed a significant improvement in apathy (SMD = -0.32; 95% CI -0.53 to -0.11; p < 0.01) after the physical exercise intervention. Conclusion: Physical exercise effectively alleviates and improves apathy in older adults. Physical exercise is characterized by low risk and high therapeutic benefits and can be used as an alternative or adjunct to medications for the treatment of apathy. Given its favorable safety and efficacy profile, physical exercise should be an important intervention in the treatment of apathy in older adults, while control of the intensity of exercise and supervision of the safety of the exercise process must be considered.
Keywords: physical exercise, Apathy, older adults, non-pharmacological intervention, Systematic review, Meta-analysis
Received: 24 Apr 2025; Accepted: 07 Aug 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 JIa, Mei, Luo, Mu and Huang. 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: Jing Huang, Southwest University, Chongqing, China
Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.