A systematic review and meta-analysis of the relationship between physical activity and procrastination behavior

Physical inactivity has been shown to be associated with a wide range of health problems, whereas procrastination not only affects the efficiency of work and study but also negatively affects an individual's psychological state. Therefore, this paper systematically reviews the research progress in this field, analyses the correlation between physical activity and procrastination behavior, and explores the underlying mechanisms.

Following the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) statement, five databases-PubMed, Web of Science, EBSCO, CNKI and ProQuest-were searched to identify studies related to physical activity and procrastination behavior, and the relevant data were extracted and subjected to random effects meta-analysis using Stata 18, with simultaneous subgroup analyses, heterogeneity tests and sensitivity analyses, to comprehensively assess physical activity and the combined effect value of the association between physical activity and procrastination behavior and its robustness.

Forty-three studies were ultimately included, which collectively showed that physical activity negatively affects different procrastination behaviors. Pearson correlation coefficients were used in 43 of the studies, and standardized coefficients were used in 25. A random effects model was used to combine the different effect sizes, and the results of the studies revealed a combined correlation coefficient of r = -0.25 and a standardized regression coefficient of β = -0.20. Subgroup analyses revealed significant differences between different physical activity assessment instruments and between different procrastination behavior assessment instruments.

There is a negative association between physical activity and procrastination.Moderate-to-high intensity physical activity is associated with lower levels of procrastination. Thus, higher levels of physical activity may be related to reduced procrastination.Furthermore, this association is related to a variety of factors.These factors should be further explored in future research to inform potential targeted intervention strategies.