Cristina Valente1,2, Renato Andrade1,2,3, Luis Alvarez4,5,6, Alexandre Rebelo-Marques1,2,7,8,9, Emmanuel Stamatakis10, João Espregueira-Mendes1,2,11,12,13. 1. Clínica Do Dragão, Espregueira-Mendes Sports Centre - FIFA Medical Centre of Excellence, Porto, Portugal. 2. Dom Henrique Research Centre, Porto, Portugal. 3. Porto Biomechanics Laboratory (LABIOMEP), Faculty of Sports, University of Porto, Porto, Portugal. 4. Dpto. Producción y Sanidad Animal, Salud Pública Veterinaria y Ciencia y Tecnología de los Alimentos, Facultad de Veterinaria, Universidad CEU Cardenal Herrera, Valencia, Spain. 5. I3S, Instituto de Investigação e Inovação em Saúde, Universidade do Porto, Porto, Portugal. 6. IPATIMUP, Institute of Molecular Pathology and Immunology, University of Porto, Porto, Portugal. 7. Coimbra Institute for Clinical and Biomedical Research (iCBR), Faculty of Medicine, University of Coimbra, Coimbra, Portugal. 8. Faculty of Medicine, University of Coimbra, Coimbra, Portugal. 9. Clinical Academic Center of Coimbra, Coimbra, Portugal. 10. Charles Perkins Centre, School of Health Sciences, Faculty of Medicine and Health, University of Sydney, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. 11. ICVS/3B's-PT Government Associate Laboratory, Guimarães, Portugal. 12. 3B's Research Group-Biomaterials, Biodegradables and Biomimetics, University of Minho, Headquarters of the European Institute of Excellence on Tissue Engineering and Regenerative Medicine, Guimarães, Portugal. 13. School of Medicine, Minho University, Braga, Portugal.
Abstract
PURPOSE: To compare a physically active lifestyle or structured exercise program to physically inactive lifestyle or control groups on telomere length (TL). METHOD: We searched PubMed, EMBASE, Cochrane Library, and Open Gray databases up to March 31, 2020. We calculated standardized mean differences (SMD) with 95% confidence intervals (CI) of TL comparing physically active to physically inactive individuals and exercise intervention to control groups. Risk of bias was judged using the Risk of Bias Assessment tool for Non-randomized Studies (RoBANS) for physical activity (PA) studies and the Cochrane risk-of-bias (RoB2) for exercise intervention studies. Certainty of evidence was judged using Grading of Recommendations Assessment, Development and Evaluation (GRADE). RESULTS: We included 30 studies (24 assessing the effects of PA and 6 assessing the effects of exercise interventions) comprising 7418 individuals. Physically active individuals had longer telomeres (SMD = 0.70, 95% CI 0.12-1.28, very-low certainty), especially in middle-aged individuals (SMD = 0.90, 95% CI 0.08-1.72, very-low certainty) and when considering only athletes (SMD = 0.54, 95% CI 0.18-0.90, very-low certainty). Trim-and-fill analyses revealed that most of the pooled effects were overestimated. Exercise interventions did not yield any significant effect on TL. CONCLUSION: There is very-low certainty that physically active individuals have longer telomeres with a moderate effect, but this effect is probably overestimated.
PURPOSE: To compare a physically active lifestyle or structured exercise program to physically inactive lifestyle or control groups on telomere length (TL). METHOD: We searched PubMed, EMBASE, Cochrane Library, and Open Gray databases up to March 31, 2020. We calculated standardized mean differences (SMD) with 95% confidence intervals (CI) of TL comparing physically active to physically inactive individuals and exercise intervention to control groups. Risk of bias was judged using the Risk of Bias Assessment tool for Non-randomized Studies (RoBANS) for physical activity (PA) studies and the Cochrane risk-of-bias (RoB2) for exercise intervention studies. Certainty of evidence was judged using Grading of Recommendations Assessment, Development and Evaluation (GRADE). RESULTS: We included 30 studies (24 assessing the effects of PA and 6 assessing the effects of exercise interventions) comprising 7418 individuals. Physically active individuals had longer telomeres (SMD = 0.70, 95% CI 0.12-1.28, very-low certainty), especially in middle-aged individuals (SMD = 0.90, 95% CI 0.08-1.72, very-low certainty) and when considering only athletes (SMD = 0.54, 95% CI 0.18-0.90, very-low certainty). Trim-and-fill analyses revealed that most of the pooled effects were overestimated. Exercise interventions did not yield any significant effect on TL. CONCLUSION: There is very-low certainty that physically active individuals have longer telomeres with a moderate effect, but this effect is probably overestimated.
Authors: Vasiliki Bountziouka; Crispin Musicha; Elias Allara; Stephen Kaptoge; Qingning Wang; Emanuele Di Angelantonio; Adam S Butterworth; John R Thompson; John N Danesh; Angela M Wood; Christopher P Nelson; Veryan Codd; Nilesh J Samani Journal: Lancet Healthy Longev Date: 2022-05