Work

Physical activity, metabolic health and well-being in community-dwelling older adults: a scoping review

Year: 2026

Type: review

Abstract: Background/objectives: Physical activity, sedentary time and sleep make up a closed 24-hour composition; reallocating time from one behavior to another has consequences for the metabolic profile and the well-being of the older adult. No single account has mapped which behaviors have been studied against which outcomes in this population. We conducted a scoping review to chart the exposures against the outcomes, summarize the associations, compare the assessment methods, and identify the gaps. Methods: Four databases (PubMed, Scopus, Web of Science and SPORTDiscus) were searched through May 2026, in line with the Arksey and O'Malley framework and PRISMA-ScR. Studies were eligible when they enrolled community-dwelling older adults with a mean age of 60 or above and reported a movement-behavior exposure against a metabolic or a well-being outcome. Database searches identified 21,995 records; 2,468 remained after de-duplication for title-and-abstract screening. Reference-list hand-searching yielded 193 additional citations, three of which proceeded to full-text assessment. Overall, 82 full-text reports were assessed for eligibility and 27 studies entered the charted evidence base. Results: Cognition was the dominant well-being outcome; more activity and less sitting went with better cognitive performance across several cohorts. In one cross-sectional study of short-sleeping older adults, the cognitive benefit appeared to plateau at approximately 800-960 MET-minutes per week, although no other included study tested that threshold. The metabolic signal was real but thinner, and it rested largely on cross-sectional compositional work. Quality of life was rarely measured. Conclusions: The daily movement composition tracks with both the cardiometabolic and the well-being outcomes. Encouraging the older adult to move more, sit less and sleep adequately is supported by the direction of the evidence. What the field still lacks are the causal design, the quality-of-life outcome, and investigations that isolate activity from the surrounding lifestyle.

Source: Frontiers in Medicine

DOI: 10.3389/fmed.2026.1969460