Physical activity intervention for non-diabetic patients with non-alcoholic fatty liver disease: a meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials - PubMed (original) (raw)

Meta-Analysis

Physical activity intervention for non-diabetic patients with non-alcoholic fatty liver disease: a meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials

Shu-Ting Wang et al. BMC Gastroenterol. 2020.

Abstract

Background: Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is currently the most common cause of chronic liver disease nowadays. Changes in diet and lifestyle have led to a dramatic increase in the prevalence of NAFLD around the world. This meta-analysis is to investigate the efficacy of physical activity intervention on liver-specific endpoints in the population with NAFLD, including hepatic enzyme, serum lipid, glucose metabolism and intra-hepatic lipid.

Methods: PubMed and China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI) databases were searched for randomized clinical trials of physical activity intervention on NAFLD patients through April 20th, 2019. Effect sizes were reported as standardized mean difference (SMD) and 95% confidence intervals (CI). Quality of included studies was assessed according to the Cochrane risk of bias tool. Meta-analyses were conducted using random-effect or fixed-effect models depending on the significance of heterogeneity. Subgroup analyses according to types and duration of physical activity were conducted to investigate clinical variability.

Results: Nine studies with a cumulative total of 951 participants met selection criteria. Physical activity was found associated with small reductions in hepatic enzyme parameters: ALT (SMD -0.17, 95% CI:-0.30 to - 0.05), AST (SMD -0.25, 95% CI: - 0.38, - 0.13) and GGT (SMD -0.22, 95% CI: - 0.36, - 0.08). Significant small improvements were also found in serum lipid parameters including TC (SMD = - 0.22, 95% CI: - 0.34, - 0.09), TG (SMD = - 0.18, 95% CI: - 0.31 to - 0.06) and LDL-C (SMD = - 0.26, 95% CI: - 0.39 to - 0.13). Significant improvement was also found in intra-hepatic lipid content (SMD = - 0.21, 95% CI: - 0.36 to - 0.06) There was no difference between physical intervention group and control group in HDL and three glucose metabolism parameters. Subgroup analysis suggested both aerobic exercise alone and resistance exercise alone can improve most liver function and longer period of exercise generally had better improvement effect.

Conclusions: Our findings suggest that physical activity alone can only slightly improve hepatic enzyme levels, most serum lipid levels and intra-hepatic lipid content in non-diabetic patients with NAFLD.

Keywords: Nonalcoholic fatty liver disease; Physical activity; Randomized controlled trials; meta-analysis.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

Figures

Fig. 1

Flowchart of the study selection process

Fig. 2

Methodological quality and risk of bias of the included trials

Fig. 3

Subgroup analysis of the effects of physical activity intervention type on hepatic enzyme parameters (a: ALT, b: AST, c: GGT)

Fig. 4

Subgroup analysis of the effects of physical activity intervention duration on hepatic enzyme parameters (a: ALT, b: AST, c: GGT)

Fig. 5

Subgroup analysis of the effects of physical activity intervention types on serum lipid parameters (a: TC, b: TG, c: LDL, d: HDL)

Fig. 6

Subgroup analysis of the effects of physical activity intervention duration on serum lipid parameters (a: TC, b: TG, c: LDL, d: HDL)

Fig. 7

Subgroup analysis of the effects of physical activity intervention types on glucose metabolism parameters (a: fasting glucose, b: fasting insulin, c: HOMA-IR)

Fig. 8

Subgroup analysis of the effects of physical activity intervention duration on glucose metabolism parameters (a: fasting glucose, b: fasting insulin, c: HOMA-IR)

Fig. 9

Subgroup analysis of the effect of physical activity intervention types on intra-hepatic lipid content

Fig. 10

Sensitivity analysis of the effect of physical activity intervention on NAFLD

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Physical activity intervention for non-diabetic patients with non-alcoholic fatty liver disease: a meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials - PubMed (original) (raw)