Twenty-Four-Hour Movement Behaviors and Adult Mental Health: A Bibliometric Analysis of Global Trends, Research Hotspots, and Emerging Directions (2016–2026)

Background: Physical activity, sedentary behavior, and sleep constitute interdependent components of the 24-hour day and are jointly associated with mental health in adults. This study aimed to examine the global research landscape, hotspots, and emerging trends in this field from 2016 to 2026. Methods: Records published between 1 January 2016,and 30 April 2026, were retrieved from the Web of Science Core Collection. The bibliometrix package (version 5.3.0), implemented in R (version 4.5.2), was used to analyze publication and citation trends and contributions from countries, institutions, authors, and journals. Country-level publication output was quantified using full counting of unique document–country pairs, such that each publication was counted only once for a given country, whereas internationally co-authored publications were credited to all participating countries. Country citation rankings were determined by aggregating citations according to the corresponding author’s country of affiliation. VOSviewer (version 1.6.20) was used to construct country-level co-authorship networks using full counting and to generate keyword co-occurrence networks. The R packages ggplot2 and circlize were used for additional visualizations, including chord diagrams of citation relationships among journals. Results: A total of 527 publications were included. The annual global production from 2016 to 2026 reflected an overall upward trend with significant fluctuations. The amount of global output peaked in 2024 with 147 publications, whereas the number of total citations reached its highest in 2022 (2702). The United States was involved in 152 of the included publications, China in 118, and Australia in 87. Australia recorded the highest total citations (1757), followed by the United States (1667) and China (1556). Keyword overlay visualization revealed a shift from traditional behavioral epidemiology focused on workplace behaviors and subjective well-being toward integrated, precision-oriented mental health research emphasizing aging, cognitive health, circadian rhythm, and objective behavioral monitoring. Emerging hotspots included machine learning, compositional data analysis, isotemporal substitution, and accelerometer-based assessment. Conclusions: Research on 24-hour movement behaviors and adult mental health has evolved into an increasingly interdisciplinary field, with growing emphasis on integrated behavioral approaches, objective assessment methods, and healthy aging.