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Meta-Analysis
. 2021 Nov;69(11):3285-3300.
doi: 10.1111/jgs.17334. Epub 2021 Jun 23.

Effect of physical activity and exercise on telomere length: Systematic review with meta-analysis

Cristina Valente  1   2 , Renato Andrade  1   2   3 , Luis Alvarez  4   5   6 , Alexandre Rebelo-Marques  1   2   7   8   9 , Emmanuel Stamatakis  10 , João Espregueira-Mendes  1   2   11   12   13
Affiliations
Meta-Analysis

Effect of physical activity and exercise on telomere length: Systematic review with meta-analysis

Cristina Valente et al. J Am Geriatr Soc. 2021 Nov.

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.

Keywords: aging; exercise; physical activity; telomere length.

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Comment in

  • Do the telomere ends justify the physical means?
    Pignolo RJ, Johnson FB. Pignolo RJ, et al. J Am Geriatr Soc. 2021 Nov;69(11):3071-3073. doi: 10.1111/jgs.17443. Epub 2021 Sep 17. J Am Geriatr Soc. 2021. PMID: 34534358 Free PMC article. No abstract available.

References

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