McDowell CP, et al. - Authors evaluated correlations between meeting World Health Organization physical activity (PA) guidelines (ie, ≥ 150 min of moderate PA, ≥ 75 min of vigorous PA or ≥ 600MET min of moderate and vigorous PA weekly) and the prevalence of probable generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) and incidence of GAD. Participants included in this study were aged ≥50 years. The respective prevalence and incidence of GAD were 18.1% and 0.9%. Meeting PA guidelines was associated with 25% and 63% lower odds of prevalent and incident GAD, respectively, in crude models. After adjustment for age, sex, waist circumference, social class and smoking, meeting PA guidelines was associated with 17% and 57% lower odds of prevalent and incident GAD, respectively. Findings suggested the importance of increasing PA at the population-level for mental health along with its established physical health benefits.