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The 130th Annual Meeting of APHA |
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The 130th Annual Meeting of APHA |
George A. Kelley, DA and Kristi S. Kelley, MEd. School of Medicine, Department of Community Medicine, West Virginia University, Robert C. Byrd Health Sciences Center, 3316 HSC(S), Morgantown, WV 26506-9190, 304-293-1500, gkelley@hsc.wvu.edu
PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to use the meta-analytic approach to examine the effects of exercise on resting systolic and diastolic blood pressure in children and adolescents. METHODS: Studies were retrieved via the following methods: (1) computerized literature searches (MEDLINE, Embase, Current Contents, Sport Discus, Dissertation Abstracts International), (2) review of reference lists from retrieved articles, and (3) review of retrieved articles by two experts on exercise and blood pressure. Inclusion criteria for this study were as follows: (1) randomized controlled trials, (2) exercise intervention lasting at least 8 weeks, (3) children and adolescents under 21 years of age as subjects, (4) journal articles, dissertations, and master’s theses published in the English-language literature between January 1966 and December 1999, and (5) changes in resting systolic and diastolic blood pressure assessed. RESULTS: Twelve randomized controlled trials representing 16 outcomes in 1,266 subjects met our inclusion criteria. Reductions in blood pressure were approximately 1% and 3% for resting systolic and diastolic blood pressure, respectively. However, random-effects modeling using 5,000 bootstrap confidence intervals (BCI) revealed that neither result was statistically significant (systolic, mean +/- SEM=-1 + 2, 95% BCI=-2 to 0; diastolic, mean +/- SEM=-2 + 1, 95% BCI=-3 to 0 mmHg). CONCLUSIONS: The results of this study suggest that exercise does not appear to reduce resting systolic and diastolic blood pressure in children and adolescents. However, a need exists for additional studies, especially in hypertensive children and adolescents.
Learning Objectives:
Keywords: Exercise, Child/Adolescent
Presenting author's disclosure statement:
I do not have any significant financial interest/arrangement or affiliation with any organization/institution whose products or services are being discussed in this session.