Effects of Exercise Intervention on Visceral Fat in Obese Children and Adolescents

Introduction: This meta-analysis study was aimed to assess the effects of exercise intervention on visceral fat in obese children and adolescents.

Evidence Acquisition: Electronic database searches were performed in Academic Search Complete, CINAHL, Healthsource, MEDLINE, and SportDiscus, and from the earliest record to November 2017. Keywords included "exercise or training," "visceral fat," and "child or adolescent or youth." The inclusion criteria for eligible studies were as follows: 1) subjects were obese at baseline; 2) aged 6-19 years; 3) visceral fat was reported at baseline and after an intervention; and 4) studies were published in peer-reviewed journals written in English.

Evidence Synthesis: A total of 207 studies were observed at the initial search and 73 effect sizes (ESs) were derived from the 34 selected studies. The overall exercise intervention effect was large (Cohen's d [ES]=-1.003, 95% CI=-1.114, -0.892). Moderator analyses results showed that gender (Qb=8.23, df=2, P=0.016), exercise type (Qb=10.68, df=2, P=0.005), and intervention length (Qb=24.71, df=2, P<0.001) influenced the overall ES.

Conclusions: The group of both boys and girls (ES=-0.95) who participated combined exercise program (Aerobic + Resistance training; ES=-1.17) for 12 months (ES=-1.24) appeared to be the most effective exercise strategy for reducing visceral fat in obese youth.