Impact of postpartum physical activity on maternal depression and anxiety: a systematic review and meta-analysis
Objective To examine the influence of postpartum exercise on maternal depression and anxiety. Design Systematic review with random effects meta-analysis and meta-regression. Data sources Online databases up to 12 January 2024, reference lists, recommended studies and hand searches. Eligibility criteria Randomised controlled trials (RCTs) and non-randomised interventions of any publication date or language were included if they contained information on the Population (postpartum people), Intervention (subjective or objective measures of frequency, intensity, duration, volume, type, or mode of delivery of exercise), Comparator (no exercise or different exercise measures), and Outcome (postpartum depression, anxiety prevalence, and/or symptom severity). Results A total of 35 studies (n=4072) were included. Moderate certainty evidence from RCTs showed that exercise-only interventions reduced the severity of postpartum depressive symptoms (19 RCTs, n=1778, SMD: −0.52, 95% CI −0.80 to –0.24,
