Effect of Different Exercise Methods on Non-Alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease: A Meta-Analysis and Meta-Regression

Yingzhe Xiong, Qingwen Peng, Chunmei Cao, Zujie Xu and Bing Zhang
Additional contact information
Yingzhe Xiong: Division of Sports Science and Physical Education, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100081, China
Qingwen Peng: School of Kinesiology and Health, Huaihua University, Huaihua 418000, China
Chunmei Cao: Division of Sports Science and Physical Education, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100081, China
Zujie Xu: Division of Sports Science and Physical Education, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100081, China
Bing Zhang: Division of Sports Science and Physical Education, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100081, China

IJERPH, 2021, vol. 18, issue 6, 1-18

Abstract: Exercise could alleviate non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD), but it was not clear which exercise methods could effectively treat NAFLD. The purpose of this systematic review and meta-analysis was to evaluate the effects of different exercise patterns on eight indicators in patients with NAFLD. We searched PubMed, Scopus, Web of Science, China National Knowledge Infrastructure, and the Wanfang Data from its inception to 30 June 2020. This review includes all randomized controlled trials (RCT) that assessed and compared the effects of different exercise on eight indicator parameters in patients with NAFLD. The results indicate that aerobic exercises could significantly improve the eight indicators in patients with NAFLD including triglycerides (TG, weighted mean difference (WMD) = ?0.53, 95%CI: ?0.68~?0.39, Z = 7.37, p < 0.01), total cholesterol (TC, WMD = ?0.39, 95%CI: ?0.55~?0.23, Z = 4.76, p < 0.01), low density lipoprotein (LDL, WMD = ?0.47, 95%CI: ?0.68~?0.26, Z = 4.33, p < 0.01), high density lipoprotein (HDL, WMD = 0.12, 95%CI: 0.05~0.18, Z = 3.56, p < 0.01), alanine aminotransferase (ALT, WMD = ?6.14, 95%CI: ?10.99~?1.29, Z = 2.48, p < 0.05), aspartate aminotransferase (AST, WMD = ?5.73, 95%CI: ?9.08~?2.38, Z = 3.36, p < 0.01), and body mass index (BMI, WMD = ?0.85, 95%CI: ?1.19~?0.51, Z = 4.92, p < 0.01). Resistance exercises could significantly reduce the levels of TG (WMD = ?0.56, 95%CI: ?0.85~?0.28, Z = 3.86, p < 0.01) and AST (WMD = ?2.58, 95%CI: ?4.79~?0.36, Z = 2.28, p < 0.05) in the patients. High-intensity interval training could significantly improve the level of ALT (WMD = ?6.20, 95%CI: ?9.34~?3.06, Z = 3.87, p < 0.01) in patients with NAFLD. These three exercise methods had different effects on the eight indexes of NAFLD in our present meta-analysis, providing some reference for the establishment of exercise prescription for patients with NAFLD.

Keywords: exercises; non-alcoholic fatty liver disease; randomized clinical trials; meta-analysis (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/18/6/3242/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/18/6/3242/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:18:y:2021:i:6:p:3242-:d:521308

Access Statistics for this article

IJERPH is currently edited by Ms. Jenna Liu

More articles in IJERPH from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().