REVIEW article
Front. Cardiovasc. Med.
Sec. Cardiovascular Epidemiology and Prevention
Volume 12 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fcvm.2025.1643153
This article is part of the Research TopicCardiovascular Responses to Exercise: Clinical and Pathological Perspectives in AthletesView all 6 articles
The effectiveness of exercise snacks as a time-efficient treatment for improving cardiometabolic health in adults: a systematic review and meta-analysis
Provisionally accepted
- 1Shandong University, Jinan, China
- 2Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts, Guangzhou, China
- 3Guangdong Vocational Academy of Art, foshan, China
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Objectives: Exercise snacks (ES) are short bursts of intensive exercise done at regular intervals during the day. The benefits to cardiometabolic health of ES for adults are unclear. The present metaanalysis aimed to assess the effects of ES on cardiometabolic health in adults.Methods: A systematic search was conducted in accordance with the PRISMA guidelines, using the following databases: PubMed, Web of Science, The Cochrane Library, EBSCOhost, and Embase, spanning all previous years up to May 24, 2025. The included studies were evaluated for their literature quality using the effective public health practice project quality assessment tool. The data were analyzed using a random-effects meta-analysis.Results: 27 studies with a total of 970 participants were included in this meta-analysis. There was a significant beneficial effect of ES on maximal oxygen uptake (SMD (standard mean difference) = 0.
Keywords: physical activity, Exercise snacks, Cardiometabolic Health, time-efficient strategy, adult 63, 95% CI: 0.45, 0.82, P < 0.001), body fat percentage (SMD = -0.21, 95% CI: -0.38, -0.04
Received: 08 Jun 2025; Accepted: 28 Jul 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Chen, Lu, Zhao, Liu and Yao. 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: Jiawei Yao, Guangdong Vocational Academy of Art, foshan, China
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