Physical activity, metabolic health and well-being in community-dwelling older adults: a scoping review
8 affiliations
- 1Ministry of Youth and Sports, Adıyaman Provincial Directorate of Youth and Sports , ,
- 2Department of Health, Culture and Sports, Sivas Cumhuriyet University , ,
- 3Department of Coaching Education, Mersin University , ,
- 4Çorum Provincial Directorate of National Education, Ministry of National Education , ,
- 5Department of Recreation, Faculty of Sports Sciences, İstanbul Topkapı University , ,
- 6Independent Researcher , ,
- 7Department of Sports Management, Faculty of Sports Sciences, Akdeniz University , ,
- 8Mersin Nutrition and Dietetics Clinic , ,
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.
Related
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BibTeX
@article{sarıkaya2026physical,
title = {{Physical activity, metabolic health and well-being in community-dwelling older adults: a scoping review}},
author = {Fatih Sarıkaya and Oğuzhan Gül and Turhan Toros and Tülay Ceylan and Meryem Güler Yılmaz and Hatice Arslan and Mehmet Emre Eryücel and Mustafa Bahar},
journal = {Frontiers in medicine},
year = {2026},
month = oct,
doi = {10.3389/fmed.2026.1969460},
url = {https://europepmc.org/article/PMC/PMC13719392},
note = {CC BY},
}
RIS
TY - JOUR
TI - Physical activity, metabolic health and well-being in community-dwelling older adults: a scoping review
AU - Fatih Sarıkaya
AU - Oğuzhan Gül
AU - Turhan Toros
AU - Tülay Ceylan
AU - Meryem Güler Yılmaz
AU - Hatice Arslan
AU - Mehmet Emre Eryücel
AU - Mustafa Bahar
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/10/16
JO - Frontiers in medicine
DO - 10.3389/fmed.2026.1969460
UR - https://europepmc.org/article/PMC/PMC13719392
AB - 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.
SN - 2296-858X
ER -