Effects of Physical Exercise on Telomere Length in Healthy Adults: Systematic Review, Meta-Analysis, and Meta-Regression

BACKGROUND: Physical exercise is one of the main nonpharmacological treatments for most pathologies. In addition, physical exercise is beneficial in the prevention of various diseases. The impact of physical exercise has been widely studied; however, existing meta-analyses have included diverse and...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores: Sánchez-González, Juan Luis [0000-0002-4791-6513], Sánchez-Rodríguez, Juan Luis [0000-0002-9406-0957], Varela-Rodríguez, Sergio, González-Sarmiento, Rogelio [0000-0002-2726-6795], Rivera-Picón, Cristina, Juárez-Vela, Raúl [0000-0003-3597-2048], Tejada-Garrido, Clara Isabel [0000-0002-6261-349X], Martín-Vallejo, Javier [0000-0003-3962-7356], Navarro-López, Víctor [0000-0003-1362-6312]
Tipo de recurso: artículo
Estado:Versión publicada
Fecha de publicación:2024
País:España
Institución:Universidad de La Rioja (UR)
Repositorio:RIUR. Repositorio Institucional de la Universidad de La Rioja
OAI Identifier:oai:portal.dialnet.es:doc/65b68c6b3f557c3e59ec137f
Acceso en línea:https://investigacion.unirioja.es/documentos/65b68c6b3f557c3e59ec137f
Access Level:acceso abierto
Palabra clave:aging
exercise
meta-analysis
older
telomere length
Descripción
Sumario:BACKGROUND: Physical exercise is one of the main nonpharmacological treatments for most pathologies. In addition, physical exercise is beneficial in the prevention of various diseases. The impact of physical exercise has been widely studied; however, existing meta-analyses have included diverse and heterogeneous samples. Therefore, to our knowledge, this is the first meta-analysis to evaluate the impact of different physical exercise modalities on telomere length in healthy populations. OBJECTIVE: In this review, we aimed to determine the effect of physical exercise on telomere length in a healthy population through a meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials. METHODS: A systematic review with meta-analysis and meta-regression of the published literature on the impact of physical exercise on telomere length in a healthy population was performed. PubMed, Cochrane Library, SCOPUS, Web of Science, and Embase databases were searched for eligible studies. Methodological quality was evaluated using the Risk Of Bias In Nonrandomized Studies of Interventions and the risk-of-bias tool for randomized trials. Finally, the certainty of our findings (closeness of the estimated effect to the true effect) was evaluated using Grading of Recommendations, Assessment, Development, and Evaluations (GRADE). RESULTS: We included 9 trials that met the inclusion criteria with fair methodological quality. Random-effects model analysis was used to quantify the difference in telomere length between the exercise and sham groups. Meta-analysis showed that exercise did not significantly increase telomere length compared with the control intervention (mean difference=0.0058, 95% CI -0.05 to 0.06; P=.83). Subgroup analysis suggested that high-intensity interventional exercise significantly increased telomere length compared with the control intervention in healthy individuals (mean difference=0.15, 95% CI 0.03-0.26; P=.01). Furthermore, 56% of the studies had a high risk of bias. Certainty was graded from low to very low for most of the outcomes. CONCLUSIONS: The findings of this systematic review and meta-analysis suggest that high-intensity interval training seems to have a positive effect on telomere length compared with other types of exercise such as resistance training or aerobic exercise in a healthy population. TRIAL REGISTRATION: PROSPERO CRD42022364518; http://tinyurl.com/4fwb85ff.