Effect Of A Personalized Community-based Exercise Program On Metabolic Syndrome Risk Factors

Abstract

Community exercise programs have been used to increase physical activity and reduce cardiovascular risks. PURPOSE: To investigate the effectiveness of a personalized community-based exercise program based on intensities personalized to individual ventilatory thresholds (VT) on decreasing metabolic syndrome (MetS) risk factors. METHODS: One hundred and fifty inactive community members were physician referred to a 12-week community exercise program between June 2016 and May 2019. Participants were separated into two groups: non-exercise control (age: M= 45.612.5 yrs) and exercise intervention (age: M= 46.6, SD= 16.7 yrs) prescribed via VT1 and VT2, exercising three times week. VT1 and VT2 measures were obtained by performing treadmill talk tests. MetS risk factors, abdominal obesity as measured by waist circumference (WC), hypertriglyceridemia, low HDL-C, hypertension as measured by systolic blood pressure (SPB) and diastolic blood pressure (DBP), and fasting blood glucose (BG), were analyzed retrospectively using MetS z-score. Paired and independent sample t-tests were used to compare within-group changes from pre- to post-intervention and between-group changes for all primary outcome measures, respectively. Significance was set at α<0.05. RESULTS: The non-exercise group experienced unchanged WC, triglycerides, and BG and had a statistically significant worsening in HDL-C (M±SD)(pre: 50.7 ± 18.2, post: 49.4 ± 16.5), SBP (pre: 119.0 ± 11.0, post: 121.2 ± 9.6), DBP (pre: 79.4 ± 8.4, post: 81.4 ± 6.6), and MetS z-score (pre: -4.14 ± 4.01, post: -3.68± -4.07). In contrast, the personalized exercise group showed statistically significant improvement in WC (pre: 84.0 ± 14.2, post: 83.1± 12.9), triglycerides (pre: 110.8 ± 54.4, post: 104.5 ± 45.7), HDL-C (pre: 54.2 ± 17.9, post: 57.8 ± 15.9), SBP (pre: 122.6 ± 14.1, post: 117.4 ± 13.1), DBP (pre: 79.7 ± 9.7, post: 77.3 ± 7.7), BG (pre: 92.5 ± 8.6, post: 89.7 ± 7.0), and MetS z-score (pre: -3.52 ± 3.82, post: -4.12 ± 3.24). CONCULSION: These findings provide preliminary evidence that individualized programming can be implemented into community-based exercise programs to reduce MetS risk in previously inactive individuals.