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Exercise Snacks and Other Forms of Intermittent Physical Activity for Improving Health in Adults and Older Adults: A Scoping Review of Epidemiological, Experimental and Qualitative Studies

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Abstract

Exercise snacks, including other variants of brief intermittent bouts, are an emerging approach for increasing physical activity, although their operationalisation is unstandardised and their health benefits remain unclear. This scoping review aimed to explore characterisations of exercise snacks and summarise their effects on health in adults and older adults. Clinical trial registers (clinicaltrials.gov and ANZCTR) and electronic databases (PubMed, CINAHL, CENTRAL, PsycINFO) were searched from inception to 1 June 2023, for ongoing and published studies of exercise snacks. Backwards and forwards citation tracking was also conducted to identify additional eligible studies. Studies were included if they investigated exercise snacks—brief intermittent bouts of physical activity spread across the day—in adults or older adults. We included epidemiological, experimental, quasi-experimental and qualitative studies that examined the effect of exercise snacks on any health outcomes or described barriers to and enablers of these approaches. Thirty-two studies were included (7 trial registers, 1 published protocol, 3 epidemiological studies and 20 trials reported across 21 studies). Three main terms were used to describe exercise snacks: exercise snack(ing), snacktivity and vigorous intermittent lifestyle physical activity (VILPA). Participants were predominantly physically inactive but otherwise healthy adults or older adults. Exercise snacks were feasible and appeared safe. Epidemiological studies showed steep, near-linear associations of VILPA with reduced all-cause, cardiovascular and cancer mortality as well as reduced incidence of major adverse cardiovascular events and cancer. The limited trial evidence showed exercise snacks had modest effects on improving cardiorespiratory fitness, whereas effects on physical function, mood, quality of life and other health outcomes were equivocal. In conclusion, exercise snacks appear feasible and safe for adults and older adults and may have promising health benefits, but this is mostly based on findings from a limited number of small quasi-experimental studies, small randomised trials or qualitative studies. More studies are needed in individuals with chronic disease. This emerging physical activity approach may have appeal for individuals who find structured exercise unfeasible.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Health Sciences, Faculty of Medicine and Health, UNSW Sydney, Sydney, Australia

    Matthew D. Jones, Briana K. Clifford & Mitchell T. Gibbs

  2. Centre for Pain IMPACT, Neuroscience Research Australia, Sydney, Australia

    Matthew D. Jones & Mitchell T. Gibbs

  3. Mackenzie Wearables Research Hub, Charles Perkins Centre, University of Sydney, Sydney, Australia

    Emmanuel Stamatakis

  4. School of Health Sciences, Faculty of Medicine and Health, University of Sydney, Sydney, Australia

    Emmanuel Stamatakis

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  1. Matthew D. Jones
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Correspondence to Matthew D. Jones.

Ethics declarations

Funding

No funding was received for this study.

Conflict of interest

E.S. is the originator of the VILPA concept and lead author of two reviewed papers. The remaining authors have no conflict of interest, financial or otherwise, to be declared.

Availability of data and material

All data generated or analysed during this study are included in this published article.

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Not applicable.

Author contributions

The idea for the article was conceived by M.D.J. and M.T.G. M.D.J. performed the literature search, and M.D.J., B.K.C. and M.T.G. screened articles for inclusion and extracted data from relevant studies. All authors provided interpretation of the results. M.D.J. drafted the article, which was critically revised by E.S., B.K.C. and M.T.G. All authors read and approved the final version.

Appendix 1: Search Strategy for Electronic Databases and Trial Registers

Appendix 1: Search Strategy for Electronic Databases and Trial Registers

PubMed

("Exercise snack*" OR "movement snack*" OR "snacktivity" OR "movement break" OR "physical activity break" OR "active break" OR "vigorous intermittent lifestyle physical activity" OR "VILPA")[All fields].


CINAHL

TX exercise snacks OR TX exercise snacking OR TX snacktivity OR TX ( movement breaks or activity break or active break) OR TX physical activity breaks. Expanders—Also search within the full text of the articles; Apply equivalent subjects. Search modes—Boolean/Phrase.


PsycINFO

Exercise snack* OR movement snack OR snacktivity OR movement breaks OR physical activity breaks OR active break OR vigorous intermittent lifestyle physical activity OR VILPA [mp = title, abstract, heading word, table of contents, key concepts, original title, tests & measures, mesh word].


CENTRAL

("Exercise snack*" OR "movement snack*" OR "snacktivity" OR "movement breaks" OR "physical activity breaks" OR "active breaks" OR "vigorous intermittent lifestyle physical activity" OR "VILPA"):ti,ab,kw. Word variations have been searched.


Clinicaltrials.gov

“Exercise snack”, “movement snack”, “snacktivity”, “movement break”, “physical activity break”, “active breaks”, "vigorous intermittent lifestyle physical activity", "VILPA”. Each phrase will be searched individually using the ‘other terms’ search feature. Study type: all studies. Study results: All studies.


ANZCTR

“Exercise snack”, “movement snack”, “snacktivity”, “movement break”, “physical activity break”, “active breaks”, "vigorous intermittent lifestyle physical activity", "VILPA”. Each phrase will be searched individually.

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Jones, M.D., Clifford, B.K., Stamatakis, E. et al. Exercise Snacks and Other Forms of Intermittent Physical Activity for Improving Health in Adults and Older Adults: A Scoping Review of Epidemiological, Experimental and Qualitative Studies. Sports Med 54, 813–835 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40279-023-01983-1

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