Background/Purpose Aerobic exercise training can have an attenuated effect on increases in resting blood pressure (RBP) and may affect body composition. It is still not clear regarding the association of body composition and RBP changes following chronic aerobic exercise among older adults.
Method A systematic review approach was used to synthesize the relevant published studies. Twenty-three studies, including a total of 1,226 subjects, were qualified for the final analysis. Net changes in resting systolic/diastolic blood pressure (SBP/DBP), body weight, BMI, and % body fat were calculated as the difference of the changes in the relevant mean values of the studies. Correlation coefficient techniques were applied to analyze data.
Analysis/Results The overall weighted net change showed a reduction of 5.4±5.5 mmHg (mean±SD) in resting SBP and of 3.7±3.8 mmHg in resting DBP. The body weight net change was decreased by 0.82±0.90 kg in the exercise groups but increased by 0.15±0.81 kg in the control groups. The BMI net change presented a decrease of 0.27±0.30 in the exercise groups but an increase of 0.08±0.31 in the control groups. For the % body fat net changes, the exercise groups decreased by 1.06±0.86% and the control groups decreased by 0.09±0.48%. There was a statistically significant correlation between % body fat net change and resting DBP change in the control groups (r=0.59, p=0.03). No other statistically significant correlations were found.
Conclusions Our results indicated that an increase in the percentage of body fat may result in a corresponding increase in resting DBP in older adults.