Exercise is closely associated with the prognosis management of chronic diseases. Against the backdrop of limitations such as time and venue constraints in traditional exercise interventions, the practical challenge of insufficient adherence exists in exercise management for chronic disease populations. Existing studies indicate that exercise snacks, as a flexible, short-duration, moderate-to-high-intensity novel physical activity model, hold potential application prospects in chronic disease management. However, there remains a lack of systematic summary regarding their intervention protocols, applicability, and safety in chronic disease populations.

To conduct a scoping review of research on the application of exercise snacks in chronic disease populations, in order to inform future practice and research in this field.

Guided by the methodological framework of the scoping review, literature was searched in CNKI, Wanfang Data, VIP, Chinese Biomedical Literature Database, PubMed, Web of Science, CINAHL, Cochrane Library, and Embase from inception to December 2025. The included studies were summarized and analyzed.

A total of 12 studies were included, with study populations mainly comprising individuals with diabetes and those with overweight/obesity. The results showed that the intervention modalities of exercise snacks mainly included stair climbing, bodyweight exercises, resistance training, balance exercises, and cycling. The intervention settings were primarily laboratory and home environments. The duration of each exercise bout ranged mainly from 15 seconds to 10 minutes. Exercise frequency varied across studies, but generally involved multiple dispersed bouts per day, and the prescribed intensity was mainly moderate to high. The outcome measures mainly included blood glucose, insulin, blood pressure, body composition, cardiorespiratory fitness, physical function, psychological status, health-related quality of life, exercise adherence, etc.

Exercise snacks demonstrate good feasibility and application potential in chronic disease populations. Future research should expand study populations and settings, validate their sustainable health benefits through multicenter long-term studies, and explore integrating exercise snacks into primary care chronic disease management, thereby providing a more comprehensive basis for exercise management in Chinese chronic disease populations.