Effects of Cardiovascular Interval Training in Healthy Elderly Subjects: A Systematic Review

Leandro de Oliveira Sant'Ana; Sérgio Machado; Aline Aparecida de Souza Ribeiro; Natália Rodrigues Dos Reis; Yuri de Almeida Costa Campos; João Guilherme Vieira da Silva; Fabiana Rodrigues Scartoni; Amanda Fernandes Brown; Estêvão Rios Monteiro; Jefferson da Silva Novaes; Jeferson Macedo Vianna; Henning Budde

doi:10.3389/fphys.2020.00739

Effects of Cardiovascular Interval Training in Healthy Elderly Subjects: A Systematic Review

Front Physiol. 2020 Jul 31:11:739. doi: 10.3389/fphys.2020.00739. eCollection 2020.

Authors

Affiliations

¹ Post Graduate Program in Physical Education, Federal University of Juiz de Fora, Juiz de Fora, Brazil.
² Sport and Exercise Science Laboratory, Catholic University of Petrópolis, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
³ Laboratory of Physical Activity Neuroscience, Salgado de Oliveira University, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
⁴ School of Physical Education and Sports, Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
⁵ Faculty of Human Sciences, Medical School Hamburg, University of Applied Science and Medical University, Hamburg, Germany.

Abstract

The aim of this review is to demonstrate the effects of cardiovascular interval training (IT) on healthy elderly subjects. We used the recommendations of the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) guidelines. The following variables were observed: resting heart rate (HR), systolic blood pressure (SBP), diastolic blood pressure (DBP), mean arterial pressure (MBP), heart rate variability (HRV), baroreflex activity (BA), and maximal oxygen uptake (VO_2max). Studies were searched for in the MedLine, PubMed, and Sport Discus databases considering publications between 1990 and 2019. To find the studies, the keywords used were "Interval and Elderly Training" or "Interval Training and Baroreflex Sensing" or "Interval Training and Aging and Pressure Arterial and Blood Pressure Training" or "Interval Training and Variation in Aging and Heart Rate" or "Interval Training and Sensitivity to the Elderly and Baroreflex" or "Interval Training and Variability in the Elderly and Heart Rate." The systematic search identified 1,140 hits. The analysis of the study was performed through a critical review of the content. One thousand one hundred forty articles were identified. Of these, 1,108 articles were excluded by checking the articles and abstracts. Finally, 32 studies were selected for full reading while 26 studies were eliminated because they did not contain a methodology according to the purpose of this review. Thus, six studies were included for the final analysis. The PEDro score was used for analyzing the study quality and found 4,8 ± 1,3 points (range: 3-6). Positive results were found with the different IT protocols in the observed variables. Results show that IT protocols can be an efficient method for functional improvement of cardiovascular and cardiorespiratory variables in the healthy elderly, especially HR, SBP, DBP, MAP, HRV, BA, and VO_2max. However, this method can be included in the prescription of aerobic training for the elderly to obtain conditional improvements in the cardiovascular system, thus being an important clinical intervention for the public.

Keywords: aerobic training; autonomic response; blood pressure; healthy elderly; hemodynamic response.

Publication types

Systematic Review