Psychophysiological Adaptations to Exercise Training in COVID-19 Patients: A Systematic Review.

Introduction: Many COVID-19 patients display adverse symptoms, such as reduced physical ability, poor quality of life, and impaired pulmonary function. Therefore, this systematic review is aimed at evaluating the effectiveness of physical exercise on various psychophysiological indicators among COVID-19 patients who may be at any stage of their illness (i.e., critically ill, hospitalized, postdischarge, and recovering). Methods: A systematic search was conducted in PubMed, Scopus, ScienceDirect, Web of Science, and Google Scholar from 2019 to 2021. Twenty-seven studies, which assessed a total of 1525 patients, were included and analysed. Results: Overall, data revealed significant improvements in the following parameters: physical function, dyspnoea, pulmonary function, quality of life (QOL), lower limb endurance and strength, anxiety, depression, physical activity level, muscle strength, oxygen saturation, fatigue, C-reactive protein (CRP), interleukin 6 (IL-6), tumour necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-α), lymphocyte, leukocytes, and a fibrin degradation product (D-dimer). Conclusions: Physical training turns out to be an effective therapy that minimises the severity of COVID-19 in the intervention group compared to the standard treatment. Therefore, physical training could be incorporated into conventional treatment of COVID-19 patients. More randomized controlled studies with follow-up evaluations are required to evaluate the long-term advantages of physical training. Future research is essential to establish the optimal exercise intensity level and assess the musculoskeletal fitness of recovered COVID-19 patients. This trial is registered with CRD42021283087.

Effects of combined aerobic exercise and diet on cardiometabolic health in patients with obesity and type 2 diabetes: a systematic review and meta-analysis.

BACKGROUND: Lifestyle modifications involving diet and exercise are recommended for patients diagnosed with obesity and type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM). The purpose of this review was to systematically evaluate the effects of combined aerobic exercise and diet (AEDT) on various cardiometabolic health-related indicators among individuals with obesity and T2DM. METHODOLOGY: A comprehensive search of the PubMed/Medline, Web of Science, Scopus, Science Direct, Cochrane, and Google Scholar databases was conducted for this meta-analysis. The Cochrane risk of bias tool was used to evaluate eligible studies, and the GRADE tool was used to rate the certainty of evidence. A random-effects model for continuous variables was used, and the results were presented as mean differences or standardised mean differences with 95% confidence intervals. RESULTS: A total of 16,129 studies were retrieved; 20 studies were included, and data were extracted from 1,192 participants. The findings revealed significant improvements in body mass index, body weight, waist circumference, systolic blood pressure, diastolic blood pressure, total cholesterol, triglycerides, fasting blood glucose, fasting plasma insulin, glycated hemoglobin, leptin, interleukin-6, C-reactive protein, and adiponectin (p < 0.05) compared to the standard treatment (ST) group. No significant differences were observed between the AEDT and ST groups in fat mass, hip circumference, waist-to-hip ratio, high-density lipoprotein cholesterol, low-density lipoprotein cholesterol, and tumor necrosis factor-alpha. The present findings are based on low- to moderate-quality evidence. CONCLUSIONS: AEDT may be a critical behavior for holistic cardiometabolic health-related benefits as a contemporary anti-obesity medication due to its significant positive impact on patients with obesity and T2DM. Nevertheless, further robust evidence is necessary to determine whether AEDT is an effective intervention for lowering cardiovascular and metabolic risk factors among individuals with obesity and T2DM.

Are there differences between Mediterranean diet and the consumption of harmful substances on quality of life?-an explanatory model in secondary education regarding gender.

Background: Adolescence is a key life stage in human development. It is during this stage of development that healthy and physical behaviors are acquired that will last into adulthood. Gender differences in the acquisition of these behaviors have been observed. This research aims to (a) study the levels of Mediterranean diet adherence, quality of life and alcohol and tobacco consumption as regarding the gender of the participants and (b) study the effects of the variable adherence to the Mediterranean diet, alcohol consumption and tobacco consumption on quality of life as a function of the gender of the participants. Methods: A non-experimental, cross-sectional, exploratory study was carried out in a sample of 1,057 Spanish adolescents (Average Age = 14.19; Standard Deviation = 2.87). Results: The comparative analysis shows that the male teenagers shows a higher Mediterranean diet adherence compared to the male adolescents (p ≤ 0.05) and a higher consumption of alcoholic beverages (p ≤ 0.05). On the contrary, adolescent girls show a higher consumption of alcoholic beverages than male participants (p ≤ 0.05). The exploratory analysis indicates that for boys, alcohol consumption has a beneficial effect on the quality of life of adolescents (ß = 0.904; p ≤ 0.001). Conclusion: In this case, participants show differences in the levels of Mediterranean diet adherence, consumption of harmful substances and quality of life according to gender. Likewise, there are different effects between the variables according to gender. Therefore, gender is a key factor to consider during adolescence.

Estimation of Obesity Levels through the Proposed Predictive Approach Based on Physical Activity and Nutritional Habits.

Obesity is the excessive accumulation of adipose tissue in the body that leads to health risks. The study aimed to classify obesity levels using a tree-based machine-learning approach considering physical activity and nutritional habits. Methods: The current study employed an observational design, collecting data from a public dataset via a web-based survey to assess eating habits and physical activity levels. The data included gender, age, height, weight, family history of being overweight, dietary patterns, physical activity frequency, and more. Data preprocessing involved addressing class imbalance using Synthetic Minority Over-sampling TEchnique-Nominal Continuous (SMOTE-NC) and feature selection using Recursive Feature Elimination (RFE). Three classification algorithms (logistic regression (LR), random forest (RF), and Extreme Gradient Boosting (XGBoost)) were used for obesity level prediction, and Bayesian optimization was employed for hyperparameter tuning. The performance of different models was evaluated using metrics such as accuracy, recall, precision, F1-score, area under the curve (AUC), and precision-recall curve. The LR model showed the best performance across most metrics, followed by RF and XGBoost. Feature selection improved the performance of LR and RF models, while XGBoost's performance was mixed. The study contributes to the understanding of obesity classification using machine-learning techniques based on physical activity and nutritional habits. The LR model demonstrated the most robust performance, and feature selection was shown to enhance model efficiency. The findings underscore the importance of considering both physical activity and nutritional habits in addressing the obesity epidemic.

Mediterranean diet adherence on self-concept and anxiety as a function of weekly physical activity: an explanatory model in higher education.

Introduction: Scientific literature has now demonstrated the benefits of an active lifestyle for people's psychological health. Based on the above statement, the aim was to (a) evaluate and adjust a structural equation model containing the variables anxiety, self-concept, and Mediterranean diet adherence and (b) contrast the proposed theoretical model by studying the differences between the variables according to the level of weekly physical activity in a sample of 558 university students. Methods: A non-experimental, exploratory, cross-sectional investigation has been proposed. Instruments such as the PREDIMED Questionnaire, the Beck Anxiety Inventory, the International Physical Activity Questionnaire, and the Form 5 Self-Concept Questionnaire were used to collect data. Results and discussion: The results illustrate that students showing low adherence to the Mediterranean diet had higher levels of anxiety (M = 0.95) than those showing a high degree of adherence (M = 0.75). It is also observed that young people with a high degree of adherence to the Mediterranean diet report higher scores in the different dimensions of self-concept compared to young people with a low degree of adherence. In conclusion, it is affirmed that young people who show a high degree of adherence to this dietary pattern show lower levels of anxiety and greater recognition of the different areas of their self-concept.

An Explanatory Model of Violent Behavior, Self-Concept, and Alcohol, Tobacco, and Cannabis Consumption in Secondary Education Students.

Background: Current scientific evidence establishes that regular physical activity engagement provides numerous physical and mental benefits. Thus, the present research aims at examining the relationships between violent behavior, self-concept, and consumption of alcohol, tobacco, and cannabis. Specifically, two objectives were defined: (a) analyze and establish the relationships between violent behaviors, the different dimensions of self-concept, and the consumption of alcohol, tobacco, and cannabis as a function of physical activity engagement, (b) define and examine a proposed explanatory model, and (c) analyze the effect of self-concept on alcohol and tobacco consumption and physical activity engagement based on the explanatory model developed. Methods: For this purpose, a nonexperimental (ex post facto), descriptive, and cross-sectional study was conducted. For data collection, a sociodemographic questionnaire was administered alongside the Self-Concept Form 5 and the School Victimization Scale. Results: It was shown that individuals engaging in more than three hours of physical exercise per week scored more highly on the social, family, physical, and emotional aspects of self-concept, whilst those who do not meet this criterion scored more highly on the academic aspect and on physical and verbal victimization. Conclusions: The present research concludes that engagement in more than 3 hours of physical activity per week led to benefits in a number of domains of self-concept whilst, at the same time, increasing levels of violence.

Alcohol, Tobacco and Cannabis Consumption on Physical Activity and Physical and Social Self-Concept in Secondary School Students: An Explanatory Model Regarding Gender.

Nowadays, the adolescent population consumes substances that are harmful to health at an earlier age. Therefore, the present research aimed to (i) develop an explanatory model of tobacco, alcohol, and cannabis consumption on physical self-concept, social self-concept, and physical activity practice and (ii) contrast the model through a multi-group analysis according to the gender of the participants. For this purpose, descriptive, comparative, and cross-sectional research was carried out on adolescent students (M = 13.91; SD = 1.31, years), using the Self-Concept Form 5 Questionnaire, the Physical Activity Questionnaire for Adolescents (PAQ-A), and the State Survey on Drug Use in Secondary Education (ETUDES) for data collection. Findings revealed that the consumption of harmful substances has a positive impact on the social area and the practice of physical exercise, showing a negative relationship between the latter variable and the social and physical area of self-concept.

Exploring the Correlation between Time Management, the Mediterranean Diet, and Physical Activity: A Comparative Study between Spanish and Romanian University Students.

BACKGROUND: The investigation started from the premise that there are links between time management (TM), physical activity (PA), and the Mediterranean diet (MD). The aim of our study is to determine the correlation between the variables TM, the MD, and PA in Spanish and Romanian university students. METHODS: The study was conducted on a group of 296 students (198 Romanian and 98 Spanish students between the ages of 23.44 ± 5.92 years, with 108 males and 188 females, where 171 were from the sports faculty and 125 were from the psychology faculty), using the Time Management Questionnaire (TMQ) to measure TM, the KIDMED test to measure MD, and the International Physical Activity Questionnaire-Short Form (IPAQ-SF) to measure PA. RESULTS: The obtained results show that there are significant differences, regarding MD and PA, between the Romanian and Spanish respondents, between the respondents from the sports faculty and those from the psychology faculty, and between the female and male respondents. The TM variable did not show a significant difference depending on the country, faculty, or gender. There was only a significant relationship between the MD and the other two variables (TM and PA). CONCLUSIONS: Significant differences were observed between the variables the MD and PA, but not TM, depending on the country, gender, and faculty. There was only a significant correlation between the MD and the other two variables (TM and PA). The results provided us with relevant data for the need for a TM protocol to improve the MD adherence and PA in university students.

Predicting Tobacco and Alcohol Consumption Based on Physical Activity Level and Demographic Characteristics in Romanian Students.

BACKGROUND: This study aims to assess the relationships between alcohol and tobacco consumption, physical activity (PA) and demographic characteristics in Romanian students. METHODS: There were 253 participants in this study (112 male and 141 female, age 19.2 ± 0.70 yrs; BMI 22.4 ± 2.2 kg/m2), students of Transilvania University of Brasov. The International Physical Activity Questionnaire Short Form (IPAQ-SF), Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test (AUDIT) and Fagerström Test for Nicotine Dependence (FTND) were employed for the data collection. RESULTS: Results showed that moderate consumption of tobacco and harmful consumption of alcohol had high prevalence among age, gender, year of study and PA level categories. Although the correlation coefficient showed no significant relationship between tobacco and alcohol use, it was shown that a negative correlation between tobacco and PA level existed. Further, age, year of study and PA level had a negative significant relationship with alcohol use among students. In the end, the tobacco and alcohol consumption prediction model showed heterogeneous coefficients. CONCLUSION: Full models of tobacco and alcohol use were differently predicted by variables, so PAL (Physical Activity Level) could predict tobacco consumption but not alcohol.

Preliminary Results of an Exercise Program After Laparoscopic Resective Colorectal Cancer Surgery in Non-Metastatic Adenocarcinoma: A Pilot Study of a Randomized Control Trial.

Performing physical exercise after a colorectal cancer diagnosis is associated with lower mortality related to the tumor itself. In order to improve physical recovery after elective surgery, there are no specific exercise protocols after discharge from the hospital. The purpose of this study is to show the preliminary results of an exercise program after colorectal cancer surgery. Six patients with non-metastatic colorectal adenocarcinoma addressed to respective laparoscopic were randomly assigned to a mixed supervised/home-based exercise program for six months and compared to a control group without exercise. To assess the effectiveness of the program, functional and body composition parameters were evaluated. Three months after surgery, the exercise group increased flexibility (p < 0.01, ES = 0.33), strength of lower limbs (p < 0.01, ES = 0.42) and aerobic capacity (p < 0.01, ES = 0.28). After surgery, the six patients experienced a significant reduction in body mass index (BMI) and free fat mass. More specifically, fat mass reached the lowest values, with a concomitant increase in cell mass after six months (p < 0.01, ES = 0.33). This did not occur in the control group. Colorectal cancer treatment induces a reduction in physical function, particularly during the first six months after treatment. A mixed exercise approach appears promising in countering this process after colorectal cancer surgery.