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The effect of exercise on anxiety in the elderly worldwide: a systematic review and meta-analysis.
Kazeminia, M, Salari, N, Vaisi-Raygani, A, Jalali, R, Abdi, A, Mohammadi, M, Daneshkhah, A, Hosseinian-Far, M, Shohaimi, S
Health and quality of life outcomes. 2020;18(1):363
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Plain language summary
Anxiety occurs in all age groups. In the US 15-52% of the elderly have anxiety related symptoms and these tend to manifest as physical problems such as insomnia, behavioural, sensory, urinary, cardiovascular, and gastrointestinal disorders. The elderly are more prone to anxiety due to loss or reduction of self-esteem, reduction of activity and stimulation, loss of friends and relatives, loss of physical independence, chronic diseases, changes in daily life or living environment, fear of death and lack of social support. Physical activity is a simple, cheap therapeutic approach. There are several preliminary studies on the effect of exercise training on reducing anxiety in the elderly, but there are inconsistencies between their results. The purpose of this meta-analysis is to resolve such inconsistencies. This meta-analysis included 19 studies published from 1999 until December 2019. Results of this study showed that sport significantly reduces anxiety in the elderly. Therefore, a regular exercise plan can be considered as a part of the elderly care program.
Abstract
BACKGROUND Physical activity and exercise are among the most important, simplest, and cheapest approaches to anxiety treatment, especially for the elderly. Their positive effects on improvement of mental disorders in the elderly have attracted a considerable level of attention. Therefore, the present study was conducted to determine the effect of sport on reducing anxiety in the elderly using meta-analysis. METHODS In this study, national and international databases of SID, MagIran, IranMedex, IranDoc, Cochrane, Embase, ScienceDirect, Scopus, PubMed, and Web of Science were searched to find studies published electronically from 1999 to 2019. Heterogeneity between the collected studies was determined using the Cochran's test (Q) and I2. Due to presence of heterogeneity, the random effects model was used to estimate the standardized mean difference of sport test scores obtained from the measurement of anxiety reduction among the elderly, between the intervention group before and after the test. RESULTS In this meta-analysis and systematic review, 19 papers finally met the inclusion criteria. The overall sample size of all collected studies for the meta-analysis was 841 s. Mean anxiety score before and after intervention were 38.7 ± 5.6 33.7 ± 3.4 respectively, denoting a decrease in anxiety score after intervention. CONCLUSION Results of this study indicates that Sport significantly reduces Anxiety in the Elderly. Therefore, a regular exercise program can be considered as a part of the elderly care program.
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Vegetarian, vegan diets and multiple health outcomes: A systematic review with meta-analysis of observational studies.
Dinu, M, Abbate, R, Gensini, GF, Casini, A, Sofi, F
Critical reviews in food science and nutrition. 2017;57(17):3640-3649
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Plain language summary
Vegetarian diet is experiencing a considerable popularity in the general population. The aim of this study was to obtain an estimate of the association between vegetarian, vegan diets, and multiple health outcomes, including risk factors for chronic diseases, risk of all-cause mortality, incidence and mortality from cardio-cerebrovascular diseases, total cancer and specific types of cancer. This study is a comprehensive systematic review with meta-analysis of all cross-sectional and cohort studies. A total of 108 articles were included in the meta-analysis with a total population of over 130,000 vegetarians and 15,000 vegans. Results indicate that: - vegetarians and vegans show significantly lower levels of the most relevant risk factor for chronic disease such as body mass index, lipid variables and fasting glucose, when compared to non-vegetarians and nonvegans. - a significant protection versus ischemic heart disease and cancer is present in vegetarian subjects, however this protection is not significant for overall mortality, cardio and cerebrovascular diseases. - vegan diet seems to be associated with a lower rate of cancer incidence (interpreted with caution due to the small sample size of the study). Authors conclude that their findings may be useful for helping to give correct information to subjects who want to adopt vegetarian or vegan dietary patterns.
Abstract
BACKGROUND Beneficial effects of vegetarian and vegan diets on health outcomes have been supposed in previous studies. OBJECTIVES Aim of this study was to clarify the association between vegetarian, vegan diets, risk factors for chronic diseases, risk of all-cause mortality, incidence, and mortality from cardio-cerebrovascular diseases, total cancer and specific type of cancer (colorectal, breast, prostate and lung), through meta-analysis. METHODS A comprehensive search of Medline, EMBASE, Scopus, The Cochrane Library, and Google Scholar was conducted. RESULTS Eighty-six cross-sectional and 10 cohort prospective studies were included. The overall analysis among cross-sectional studies reported significant reduced levels of body mass index, total cholesterol, LDL-cholesterol, and glucose levels in vegetarians and vegans versus omnivores. With regard to prospective cohort studies, the analysis showed a significant reduced risk of incidence and/or mortality from ischemic heart disease (RR 0.75; 95% CI, 0.68 to 0.82) and incidence of total cancer (RR 0.92; 95% CI 0.87 to 0.98) but not of total cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases, all-cause mortality and mortality from cancer. No significant association was evidenced when specific types of cancer were analyzed. The analysis conducted among vegans reported significant association with the risk of incidence from total cancer (RR 0.85; 95% CI, 0.75 to 0.95), despite obtained only in a limited number of studies. CONCLUSIONS This comprehensive meta-analysis reports a significant protective effect of a vegetarian diet versus the incidence and/or mortality from ischemic heart disease (-25%) and incidence from total cancer (-8%). Vegan diet conferred a significant reduced risk (-15%) of incidence from total cancer.