What is the clinical evidence from this study?

Study design: Systematic Review. Population: Healthy, overweight, or obese children and adolescents (n=1155). Intervention: High-intensity interval training (HIIT) vs. Moderate-intensity exercise or control group. Primary outcome: Cardiovascular disease biomarkers, body composition, and blood pressure.

June 22, 2017Open Access

High-Intensity Interval Training Interventions in Children and Adolescents: A Systematic Review

Key Result

High-intensity interval training improves cardiovascular disease biomarkers in children and adolescents, but evidence regarding its effectiveness for body composition and blood pressure remains equivocal.

Study Design

Type

Systematic Review (n=1,155)

Structured PICO

Does high-intensity interval training improve health-related outcome measures and cardiovascular disease biomarkers in healthy children and adolescents?

Population

Healthy children and/or adolescents (aged 5-18 years) from 13 studies

Intervention

High-intensity interval training

Outcome

Health-related outcome measures including cardiovascular disease biomarkerssurrogate

High-intensity interval training, particularly running-based sessions for at least 7 weeks, is a time-effective method for improving cardiovascular disease biomarkers in healthy children and adolescents.

Limitations

Paucity of literature and methodological limitations (high risk of bias) of available studies
Differences in participant characteristics between pre-pubertal and pubertal studies
Failure to account for changes in dietary intake in most studies
Lack of measurement of habitual physical activity to account for the compensation effect
Small sample sizes and lack of post-intervention follow-up in most studies

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Whilst there is increasing interest in the efficacy of high-intensity interval training in children and adolescents as a time-effective method of eliciting health benefits, there remains little consensus within the literature regarding the most effective means for delivering a high-intensity interval training intervention. Given the global health issues surrounding childhood obesity and associated health implications, the identification of effective intervention strategies is imperative. OBJECTIVES: The aim of this review was to examine high-intensity interval training as a means of influencing key health parameters and to elucidate the most effective high-intensity interval training protocol. METHODS: Studies were included if they: (1) studied healthy children and/or adolescents (aged 5-18 years); (2) prescribed an intervention that was deemed high intensity; and (3) reported health-related outcome measures. RESULTS: A total of 2092 studies were initially retrieved from four databases. Studies that were deemed to meet the criteria were downloaded in their entirety and independently assessed for relevance by two authors using the pre-determined criteria. From this, 13 studies were deemed suitable. This review found that high-intensity interval training in children and adolescents is a time-effective method of improving cardiovascular disease biomarkers, but evidence regarding other health-related measures is more equivocal. Running-based sessions, at an intensity of >90% heart rate maximum/100-130% maximal aerobic velocity, two to three times a week and with a minimum intervention duration of 7 weeks, elicit the greatest improvements in participant health. CONCLUSION: While high-intensity interval training improves cardiovascular disease biomarkers, and the evidence supports the effectiveness of running-based sessions, as outlined above, further recommendations as to optimal exercise duration and rest intervals remain ambiguous owing to the paucity of literature and the methodological limitations of studies presently available.

Mark Helpful

Bookmark

Relay

View Full Paper