Vancampfort D, et al. – The purposes of this study were to investigate relationships between physical activity (PA) and suicidal ideation (SI) levels as well as to examine the effect of PA interventions on SI through a systematic review and meta–analysis. The results of this study revealed that higher PA levels were related to lower SI.

Methods

• For this investigation, major electronic databases were searched from beginning up to 05/2017 to identify quantitative studies reporting a relationship between PA and SI.
• After that, a quantitative correlates synthesis and random effects meta-analysis were conducted.

Results

• According to the findings obtained, 14 of 21 studies in adults (67%) (n = 130,737), 7/14 (50%) in adolescents (n = 539,170) and 2/3 (67%) in older adults (n = 50,745) found a significant negative relationship between PA- and SI-levels.
• Pooled adjusted meta-analysis of 14 effect sizes over eight studies and 80,856 individuals found that those who were “active” versus those who were “inactive” were less likely to have SI (OR = 0.87, 95%CI = 0.76–0.98).
• Meeting PA guidelines conferred a significant protective impact against SI (OR = 0.91, 95%CI = 0.51–0.99, P = 0.03; N studies = 3, n people = 122,395), on the other hand, not meeting guidelines was related to increased SI (OR = 1.16, 95%CI = 1.09–1.24, P
• Information from the intervention studies (N = 3, n = 121) was mixed and limited.