Effect of aerobic exercise training frequency on arterial stiffness in middle-aged and elderly females.
Ryota Kobayashi, Kenji Asaki, Takeo Hashiguchi and 1 others
PMID 35527837WHAT IT FOUND
In healthy middle-aged and elderly females, 8 weeks of jogging or running twice or four times weekly lowered aortic stiffness.
Four sessions also lowered other stiffness measures and some blood pressure values.
Key findings
01Aortic stiffness, measured as carotid-femoral pulse wave velocity, decreased after 8 weeks in both exercise groups, but not in the control group.
02Brachial-ankle pulse wave velocity, heart-brachial pulse wave velocity, AVI and API decreased only in the high-frequency group.
03Brachial and ankle systolic and mean blood pressure decreased only in the high-frequency group, while double product decreased in both exercise groups.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for PTs
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What it does not show
The study was done only in healthy middle-aged and elderly females, so it does not show what would happen in younger people, males, or people with disease. The paper does not state a single primary outcome, so it is unclear which stiffness measure should be viewed as the main result. The methods give two different session lengths: 30 minutes per session in the group description and 35 minutes of supervised jogging or running in the training description. The paper does not report dropouts, allocation concealment, or assessor blinding. The authors note that differences in total physical activity between the training groups may have influenced the results. The outcomes are arterial stiffness and blood pressure measures, not functional mobility or patient-reported symptoms.
Declared interests
This work was supported by a subsidy from OG Wellness Technologies Co., Ltd. The authors declared no conflicts of interest.
The easy way to misread this
Do not conclude that four sessions per week are required for every arterial stiffness outcome: aortic stiffness improved with two sessions per week, and the study measured stiffness indices in healthy females, not cardiovascular events or functional ability.