Physical activity is associated with subjective well-being. In rural communities, however, physical activity may be affected by environmental factors (e.g., nature and socioecological factors). We examined the association of two physical activities in rural life (farming activity and snow removal) with subjective well-being in terms of happiness and ikigai (a Japanese word meaning purpose in life). In this cross-sectional study, we analysed data collected from community-dwelling adults aged ≥ 40 years in the 2012–2014 survey of the Uonuma cohort study, Niigata, Japan. Happiness (n = 31,848) and ikigai (n = 31,785) were evaluated with respect to farming activity from May through November and snow removal from December through April by using an ordinal logistic regression model with adjustments for potential confounders. The analyses were conducted in 2019. Among the participants who reported some farming or snow-removal time, median farming and snow-removal time (minutes per day) was 90.0 and 64.3 for men and 85.7 and 51.4 for women, respectively. Ordinal logistic regression analysis showed that longer time farming was associated with greater happiness and ikigai in men (adjusted odds ratio for first vs. fourth quartile: happiness = 1.17, 95% confidence interval [CI] = 1.01, 1.35; ikigai = 1.29, 95% CI = 1.10, 1.50), and also in women (adjusted odds ratio for first vs. fourth quartile: happiness = 1.17, 95% CI = 1.001, 1.36; ikigai = 1.42, 95% CI = 1.20, 1.67). More snow-removal time was inversely associated with happiness and with ikigai in women only (adjusted odds ratio for first vs. fourth quartile: happiness = 0.75, 95% CI = 0.67, 0.85; ikigai = 0.78, 95% CI = 0.69, 0.88). Our findings showed that physical activity in rural life was associated with happiness and with ikigai, and gender differences were observed in their associations with more snow-removal time. These results may be useful in helping to identify people in rural communities who are vulnerable in terms of psychological well-being.

身体活动与主观幸福感相关。但是，在农村社区，体育锻炼可能会受到环境因素（例如自然和社会生态因素）的影响。我们研究了农村生活中的两种体育活动（耕作活动和除雪）与主观幸福感之间的联系，这些幸福感和社交活动是日语（意思是生活目的）。在这项横断面研究中，我们分析了在2012-2014年日本新泻市Uonuma队列研究中从年龄≥40岁的社区居民中收集的数据。幸福（n  = 31,848）和ikigai（n 使用序数逻辑回归模型对潜在的混杂因素进行了调整，对5月至11月的农业活动和12月至4月的除雪情况进行了评估（= 31,785）。该分析于2019年进行。在报告了一些耕种或除雪时间的参与者中，男性的中位数耕作和除雪时间（每天的分钟数）分别为90.0和64.3，女性为85.7和51.4。序数逻辑回归分析表明，长时间耕作与男性的幸福感和ikigai更大有关（第一四分位数与第四四分位数的调整后的优势比：幸福度= 1.17，95％置信区间[CI] = 1.01，1.35；ikigai = 1.29，95％CI = 1.10，1.50），以及女性（第一四分位数与第四四分位数的调整后比值比：幸福= 1.17，95  ％CI = 1.001，1.36 ; ikigai = 1.42，95％CI = 1.20，1.67）。更长的除雪时间仅与女性和幸福感成反比（调整后的第一四分位数与第四四分位数的优势比：幸福度= 0.75，95  ％CI = 0.67，0.85 ; ikigai = 0.78，95％CI = 0.69，0.88）。我们的研究结果表明，农村生活中的体育活动与幸福和ikigai有关，并且在除雪时间越长时，他们之间的性别差异越明显。这些结果可能有助于识别农村社区的心理健康状况。