Individual versus group-based interventions: a systematic review and meta-analysis of physical activity, functional, psychosocial and health outcomes
Kritz and colleagues updated an earlier review that had found real groups, meaning programmes built deliberately on group dynamics, outperformed individual approaches to physical activity. With seventy-one studies and several hundred comparisons now available, including online delivery, the advantage mostly does not hold. Group-based conditions were slightly ahead for activity itself, for psychosocial outcomes such as quality of life and loneliness, and for health outcomes, but none of those differences was statistically reliable. Only functional outcomes such as strength and flexibility showed a clear group advantage, and that emerged only after unusual results were set aside. Different kinds of group performed comparably, with one exception: programmes applying group dynamics principles properly were associated with better health outcomes. The authors' conclusion is even-handed and useful, that both individual and group approaches can work, in person or online, and that the question worth researching now is what makes either effective rather than which is better. The review was registered in advance.
Kritz and colleagues updated an earlier review that had found real groups, meaning programmes built deliberately on group dynamics, outperformed individual approaches to physical activity. With seventy-one studies and several hundred comparisons now available, including online delivery, the advantage mostly does not hold. Group-based conditions were slightly ahead for activity itself, for psychosocial outcomes such as quality of life and loneliness, and for health outcomes, but none of those differences was statistically reliable. Only functional outcomes such as strength and flexibility showed a clear group advantage, and that emerged only after unusual results were set aside. Different kinds of group performed comparably, with one exception: programmes applying group dynamics principles properly were associated with better health outcomes. The authors' conclusion is even-handed and useful, that both individual and group approaches can work, in person or online, and that the question worth researching now is what makes either effective rather than which is better. The review was registered in advance.
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What our sources record
Reproduced as it was written when this source was checked, figures and all.
71 studies, 523 effect sizes; physical activity n = 22,042, g = 0.086, 95% CI −0.061 to 0.233, p = 0.249.
Where we use it
- Somebody Notices When You Are Missing, Why We Move
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The link below was matched against the publisher's record on title, first author and year, and all three agree.
The source
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41562-026-02429-0
DOI: 10.1038/s41562-026-02429-0