Aortic & peripheral vascular diseaseMeta-analysis
Winners do what they fear: exercise and peripheral arterial disease—an umbrella review
- Umbrella review (systematic review of meta-analyses of randomised trials)
Authors' conclusion
Synthesis of the currently available meta-analyses suggests that regular exercise may be beneficial for a broad range of functional tasks improving health-related quality of life in patients with PAD. Supervised aerobic exercise is the best type of exercise to improve walking-related outcomes and pain, while resistance exercise is more effective to improve lower limb strength.
Study context
- Population
- Patients with PAD16 studies · 198 meta-analyses
- Comparison
- Regular exercise vs no exercise
Pooled result
As reported in the abstract
Supervised aerobic exercise: walking and pain outcomes
Supervised aerobic exerciseMD, m (95% CI)P value
maximum walking distance; I2: 65%
177.94(142.29–213.60)
P < 0.00001Supervised aerobic exerciseMD, points (95% CI)P value
self-reported distance score; I2: 0%
9.22(5.74–12.70)
P < 0.00001self-reported speed score; I2: 0%
8.71(5.64–11.77)
P < 0.00001self-reported stair-climbing score; I2: 0%
8.02(4.84–11.21)
P < 0.00001self-reported combined score; I2: 0%
8.76(2.78–14.74)
P < 0.0001Supervised aerobic exerciseMD (95% CI)P value
pain score; I2: 0%
7.65(3.15–12.15)
P = 0.0009- pain-free walking distance; I2: 67%
- fixed MD 68.78 m (95% CI 54.35–83.21); P < 0.00001
- aerobic capacity; I2: 64%
- fixed MD 0.62 mL/kg/min (95% CI 0.47–0.77); P < 0.00001
Further pooled results
Lower limb strength (resistance exercise)
| Comparison | standardized mean difference (95% CI) | P value | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Resistance exercise · I2: 0% | 0.71 (0.29–1.13) | P = 0.0009 | |
| −0.500.511.5Difference (linear scale) |
Haemodynamic parameters
- No significant evidence found
Original publication
Winners do what they fear: exercise and peripheral arterial disease—an umbrella review. Eur J Prev Cardiol. Published 23 August 2023. doi:10.1093/eurjpc/zwad261
Summarised from the published abstract; every number is checked against it