ABSTRACT
OBJECTIVE: Acute high-intensity exercise can temporarily suppress appetite, but the effect of appetite hormones in this process is inconclusive. Meta-analysis is used to explore the effects of acute high-intensity exercise on adult appetite hormones, and provide theoretical basis for the follow-up research on the effects of exercise on appetite hormones. METHODS: Chinese and International databases such as CNKI, WanFang, Web of Science, PubMed and other databases were searched for articles regarding the effects of acute high-intensity exercise on appetite hormones. The literature search time span was from inception to August 17, 2019. The subjects included in the article were all adults. The intervention measure was a single high-intensity exercise. The outcome indicators were one or combination of acylated ghrelin, peptide YY, peptide YY 3-36, pancreatic polypeptide, and pancreatic height, and glucagon-like peptide-1 expressed by area under curves. In this meta-analysis, an improved version of Cochrane risk bias tool was used to evaluate methodological quality, and Revman 5.3 and STATA15.0 software were used for the meta-analysis of the outcome indicators of the included literature. RESULTS: A total of 18 research literatures were included, with a total of 212 subjects, including 179 males and 33 females. The literature quality evaluation results showed that the overall literature quality was high. Meta-analysis results showed that acute high-intensity exercise could significantly inhibit acylated ghrelin level (standardized mean difference (SMD)=-0.27, 95% confidence interval (CI):-0.45 to-0.08, P < 0.05), and significantly increase peptide YY (SMD=-0.31, 95%CI: 0.07-0.54, P < 0.05). Although there was an increase in the levels of peptide YY 3-36 (SMD=0.29, 95%CI:-0.19 to 0.77, P 0.05), pancreatic polypeptide (SMD=0.37, 95%CI:-0.07 to 0.81, P 0.05), and glucagon-like peptide-1 (SMD=0.29, 95%CI:-0.17 to 0.75, P 0.05) after acute highintensity exercise, it had no significant significance. CONCLUSION: Overall, acute high-intensity exercise has a certain effect on the level of appetite hormones, which can significantly inhibit orexigenic hormones and increase anorexigenic gastrointestinal hormones. The results suggest that acute high-intensity exercise can effectively regulate the secretion of appetite hormones, thereby controlling appetite and food intake, and can play a positive role in weight management. But future large-sample trials are needed.