Document Type

Article

Publication Date

2026

DOI

10.1007/s12671-026-02912-9

Publication Title

Mindfulness

Volume

17

Pages

2325-2343

Abstract

Objectives

Physical activity and meditation may each relate to mental health, but their joint associations in U.S. adults are unclear. We examined the separate and joint associations of any past-year meditation and meeting physical activity (PA) guidelines with depression and anxiety symptoms.

Method

We analyzed data from the 2022 National Health Interview Survey Sample Adult file (n = 24,927). Exposures were meeting PA guidelines, any past-year meditation, and their four-level combination (Neither, PA only, Meditation only, Both). Outcomes were moderate-to-severe depressive and anxiety symptoms (PHQ-8/GAD-7 >= 10). Survey-weighted modified Poisson models estimated prevalence ratios (PRs), with interaction, sensitivity, and post hoc analyses.

Results

Versus Neither, adjusted PRs for depression were 0.49 (95% CI, 0.42-0.56) for PA only, 1.59 (1.38-1.85) for Meditation only, and 1.27 (1.08-1.50) for Both; corresponding anxiety PRs were 0.69 (0.60-0.80), 1.69 (1.44-1.99), and 1.26 (1.06-1.50). Associations varied by age for both outcomes and by income-to-poverty ratio for depression, but not by sex. In counseling-restricted analyses, the inverse PA-only association remained, whereas Meditation-only and Both estimates attenuated toward the null. Sensitivity analyses were similar.

Conclusions

Meeting PA guidelines was associated with lower depression and anxiety, whereas reporting any past-year meditation without sufficient PA was associated with higher prevalence, likely reflecting indication/help-seeking. Adults reporting both behaviors had a more favorable symptom profile than Meditation only, but this cross-sectional contrast should not be interpreted causally.

Rights

© 2026 The Authors.

This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons license and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. 

Data Availability

Article states: "All data are publicly available from the National Health Interview Survey (NHIS) program of the U.S. National Center for Health Statistics. Data files can be accessed without restriction at the NHIS website: [https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/nhis/documentation/2022-nhis.html], (https:/www.cdc.gov/nchs/nhis/documentation/2022-nhis.html)."

Original Publication Citation

Wang, Y. B. (2026). Joint associations of meditation and physical activity with depression and anxiety symptoms in US adults: NHIS 2022. Mindfulness, 17, 2325-2343. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12671-026-02912-9

ORCID

0009-0002-0955-7705 (Wang)

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