Parkinson’s disease (PD) is the second most common neurodegenerative disease worldwide, and approximately 50% of PD patients suffer from depression. We aim to determine the effects of physical activity on depression in PD patients and to provide scientific evidence-based exercise prescriptions for PD patients. A systematic review was conducted by searching PubMed, Embase, Cochrane Library, and PsycInfo until February 2022 for randomized controlled trial (RCT) studies published in English. The primary outcome was a score on a depression scale. A total of 14 RCTs involving 516 patients with PD were included in this study. The results of the meta-analysis showed that physical activity had a moderate and significant improvement in depression in PD patients (SMD = −0.60; 95% CI = −0.79 to −0.41; p < 0.00001). Subgroup analysis indicated that resistance exercise for 60−90 min more than 4 times per week for up to 12 weeks had a significant effect on PD patients who have had the disease for more than 5 years. Meta-regression showed that intervention type, intervention time, intervention frequency, intervention period, age, and disease duration were not sources of heterogeneity. Physical activity may reduce depression in PD patients. However, other larger sample sizes and high-quality studies are needed to validate these effects in the future.
Keywords: Parkinson’s disease; depression; meta-analysis; physical activity.