Stay active, stay happy
By: Nikki Henderson
Updated: March 6, 2013
If you want your happy days to outnumber your sad ones, go for a run.
A recent study shows that regular activity is linked to greater happiness over a longer period of time.
Canadian researchers analyzed data from eight National Population Health Survey cycles, spanning 15 years, to see how activity level at the beginning of the survey and then years later was associated with happiness.
Those who were surveyed were asked about participation in several kinds of leisure-time physical activity and were divided into active and inactive groups. They were also asked to characterize how happy they were and were divided into happy and unhappy groups.
The researchers found that being physically active was associated with 85 percent higher odds of being happy. They also found that people who changed from being inactive to active were more likely to report feeling happy two and four years later.
These findings suggest that changes in activity level affects changes in mood over long periods of time.
The study was published in the American Journal of Epidemiology.
