REVIEW article
Front. Cardiovasc. Med.
Sec. Atherosclerosis and Vascular Medicine
Volume 12 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fcvm.2025.1617799
Comparative Effectiveness of Statins and Exercise on in High-Risk Cardiovascular Individuals: A Systematic Review and Network Meta-Analysis
Provisionally accepted
- 1beijingsportuniversity, 北京市 / 市辖区 / 海淀区, China
- 2School of Education, Beijing Sport University, Beijing, Beijing Municipality, China
- 3湖南科技大学体育学院, 湖南湘潭, China
Select one of your emails
You have multiple emails registered with Frontiers:
Notify me on publication
Please enter your email address:
If you already have an account, please login
You don't have a Frontiers account ? You can register here
Background and aims: Arterial stiffness (AS) predicts cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk and relates to multiple factors. But the best interventions for AS in high -risk CVD groups are unknown. This review focuses on how different interventions affect AS and related indicators. Methods: We searched MEDLINE (PubMed), Embase, Cochrane Library, EBSCO, and Web of Science for relevant studies. Inclusion criteria: (1) randomized controlled trials (RCT); (2) participants with CVD risk factors as per American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM) guidelines; (3) interventions including Whole-Body Vibration (WBV), statins (STA), interval training (INT), aerobic exercise (AE), resistance exercise (RT), and combined exercise (CT); (4) control groups with usual care or placebo; (5) outcomes of pulse wave velocity (PWV), systolic blood pressure (SBP), and diastolic blood pressure (DBP); (6) studies in English. Data were analyzed using a random effects network meta-analysis and assessed for bias using the Cochrane tool. Results:This meta-analysis of 58 studies (n=2,931) found all long-term interventions (STA, WBV, CT, RT, AE, INT) significantly reduced PWV (p<0.001). WBV, INT, and AE notably lowered both SBP and DBP (p<0.001). hSTA showed optimal PWV reduction (SUCRA=92.0), while WBV showed highest efficacy for SBP (SUCRA=94.0) and DBP (SUCRA=77.3). Conclusions: For CVD high-risk populations, high doses of statins (hSTA) optimally reduces AS; WBV is the top non-drug AS intervention, while INT best improves both AS and BP short-term. Combined, these interventions significantly enhance outcomes.
Keywords: arterial stiffness, high-risk populations for cardiovascular diseases, Statins, Exercise Intervention, Network meta-analysis, Whole-body vibration training
Received: 25 Apr 2025; Accepted: 23 Jun 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Chen, Zhang, Li, Wu and Ma. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: HongTao Ma, School of Education, Beijing Sport University, Beijing, 100084, Beijing Municipality, China
Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.