Dose-Response Relationship between Endurance Training Prescription Variables and Increases in Aerobic Performance of Healthy and Unhealthy Middle and Very Old Individuals Aged 70 Years and Older: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Randomized Controlled Trials

Sarah Cheour; Chouaib Cheour; Nicola Luigi Bragazzi; Liye Zou; Armin H Paravlic; Maamer Slimani; Foued Cheour

doi:10.3390/life11020121

Dose-Response Relationship between Endurance Training Prescription Variables and Increases in Aerobic Performance of Healthy and Unhealthy Middle and Very Old Individuals Aged 70 Years and Older: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Randomized Controlled Trials

Life (Basel). 2021 Feb 5;11(2):121. doi: 10.3390/life11020121.

Authors

Sarah Cheour¹, Chouaib Cheour¹, Nicola Luigi Bragazzi², Liye Zou³, Armin H Paravlic^{4

5}, Maamer Slimani^{6

7}, Foued Cheour⁸

Affiliations

¹ High Institute of Sport and Education of Sfax, Sfax 3000, Tunisia.
² Laboratory for Industrial and Applied Mathematics (LIAM), Department of Mathematics and Statistics, York University, Toronto, ON M3J 1P3, Canada.
³ College of Psychology and Sociology, Exercise and Mental Health Laboratory, Shenzhen University, Shenzhen 518060, China.
⁴ Institute of Kinesiology Research, Science and Research Centre, SI-6000 Koper, Slovenia.
⁵ Faculty of Sport, University of Ljubljana, 1000 Ljubljana, Slovenia.
⁶ Department of Neuroscience, Rehabilitation, Ophthalmology, Genetics, Maternal and Child Health (DINOGMI), Section of Psychiatry, Genoa University, 16126 Genoa, Italy.
⁷ School of Public Health, Department of Health Sciences (DISSAL), Genoa University, 16126 Genoa, Italy.
⁸ High Institute of Applied Biology of Médenine, Medenine 4119, Tunisia.

Abstract

Background: The objectives of this systematic review and meta-analysis were to quantify the effectiveness of endurance training (ET) on aerobic performance (i.e., peak oxygen uptake (VO_2peak)) in healthy and unhealthy middle and very old adults aged 70 years and older, and to provide dose-response relationships of training prescription variables (in terms of frequency, and volume).

Methods: Several scholarly databases (i.e., PubMed/MEDLINE, SpringerLink, ScienceDirect Journals, and Taylor & Francis Online-Journals) were searched, identifying randomized controlled studies that investigated the effectiveness of ET on VO_2peak in older adults. Standardized mean differences (SMD) were calculated.

Results: In terms of changes differences between experimental and control group, ET produced significant large effects on VO_2peak performance (SMD = 2.64 (95%CI 0.97-4.31)). The moderator analysis revealed that "health status" variable moderated ET effect onVO_2peak performance. More specifically, ET produced larger SMD magnitudes on VO_2peak performance in healthy compared with unhealthy individuals. With regard to the dose-response relationships, findings from the meta-regression showed that none of the included training prescription variables predicted ET effects on VO_2peak performance.

Conclusions: ET is an effective mean for improving aerobic performance in healthy older adults when compared with their unhealthy counterparts.

Keywords: dose–response relationship; elderly; exercise; physical activity training prescriptions; physical endurance; physical fitness; systematic review and meta-analysis.

Publication types

Review