In the authors' words
“Exercise of low to moderate intensity reduces depressive symptoms in midlife and older women.”
What was measured
About the study
- Type
- Meta-analysis
- Who took part
- Midlife women, depression or anxiety
- How many
- 1,943
- Exercise
- General physical activity
- Cited
- 52 times, per Europe PMC
- PubMed ID
- 29150165
How to read this. Each line is one study, summarised in plain language from its PubMed abstract, with the authors' own sentence underneath on the study page. A count of studies is not a verdict: trials differ in size, length and quality, and a result in one group of women may not hold in another. Nothing here is medical advice.
Summaries are generated, then checked by machine against the abstract they came from; any summary that could not be matched word for word was left out. Our clinical lead is reviewing the summaries topic by topic, and this note will change when that is done. Corpus last refreshed 2026-11-03. Spotted a mistake? Tell us and we will fix the summary or remove the study.
Similar studies
- A meta-analysis of 16 trials in 2108 perimenopausal and postmenopausal women found physical exercise improved sleep quality on both subjective and objective measures.
- A meta-analysis of ten RCTs in midlife and older women found mid-term exercise programs of 12 to 16 weeks reduced mild to moderate anxiety symptoms, but longer programs of 6 to 14 months did not.
- A meta-analysis of 21 randomized trials with 2020 women found physical activity reduced depressive and anxiety symptoms during the menopausal transition and menopause, regardless of exercise intensity.
- A scoping review of 67 studies covering over 103,000 midlife women found physical activity generally linked to better psychological and social outcomes like mood and quality of life.