Effects of aerobic, resistance and combined training on endothelial function and arterial stiffness in older adults: a systematic review and meta-analysis
Description
We examined the effects of aerobic, resistance and combined training on flow-mediated dilation and pulse wave velocity in older adults. We conducted a systematic review of randomized clinical trials evaluating the effects of aerobic, resistance and/or combined training on flow-mediated dilation and/or pulse wave velocity selected from the electronic databases PubMed, Cochrane, LILACS, EMBASE, Web of Science and the gray literature. We assessed the studies using Cochrane risk of bias (RoB2) tool and the GRADE tool. Our analysis of 23 RCTs showed that aerobic training was effective to improve flow-mediated dilation and pulse wave velocity by compared to the control group. The subgroup analyses showed no flow-mediated dilation differences following aerobic training in healthy adults when compared to those with any health condition. Combined training was effective in improving flow-mediated dilation and pulse wave velocity. But these same parameters did not show any improvement in response to resistance training. Aerobic and combined training may be effective to improve flow-mediated dilation and pulse wave velocity in older adults. Few studies evaluated resistance training alone and therefore the results for this modality should be interpreted with caution.