Physical Activity and the Risk of Gallbladder Disease: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Cohort Studies

Abstract

Background:Physical activity has been hypothesized to reduce the risk of gallbladder disease (gallstones, cholecystitis, cholecystectomy); however, results from epidemiological studies have not always shown statistically significant associations. We conducted a systematic review and meta-analysis to clarify the presence and strength of an association between physical activity and gallbladder disease risk.Methods:PubMed and Embase databases were searched for studies of physical activity and gallbladder disease up to 9th of January 2015. Prospective studies reporting relative risk (RR) estimates and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) of gallbladder disease associated with physical activity were included. Summary RRs were estimated using a random effects model.Results:Eight studies including 6958 cases and 218,204 participants were included. The summary RR for the highest versus the lowest level of physical activity was 0.75 (95% CI: 0.69–0.81, n = 8) and there was no evidence of heterogeneity, I2 = 0%). In the dose-response analysis the summary relative risk per 20 MET-hours of activity was 0.85 (95% CI: 0.80–0.90, I2 = 0%, n = 2) for leisure-time physical activity, 0.83 (95% CI: 0.76–0.90, I2 = 0%, n = 2) for vigorous physical activity, and 0.86 (95% CI: 0.76–0.98, I2 = 0%, n = 2) for nonvigorous physical activity.Conclusion:Our analysis confirms a protective effect of physical activity on risk of gallbladder disease.

Physical activity and the risk of sudden cardiac death: a systematic review and meta-analysis of prospective studies

“…In addition, further studies are needed to clarify which types and intensities of physical activity may be most beneficial for preventing sudden cardiac death. At the population-level physical activity remains an important modifiable risk factor for sudden cardiac death as well as a protective factor for many other diseases including cardiovascular diseases [16,35,36], type 2 diabetes [43], multiple cancers [49], several other diseases [50][51][52][53][54], and premature mortality [55]. Therefore the current results underscore the importance of promoting physical activity for the primary prevention of sudden cardiac death as well as for overall health.…”

Body mass index and physical activity and the risk of diverticular disease: a systematic review and meta-analysis of prospective studies

“…The studies on physical activity and diverticular disease reported the data using different underlying measures (MET-hours per week, or in <3 categories or without quantifying the physical activity level in each category), and for this reason we were not able to conduct dose–response analyses of physical activity. This appears to be a common problem in studies on physical activity and health outcomes [ 34 – 37 ] and emphasizes the need for a more thorough and standardized approach to analyses and reporting of data on physical activity and different health outcomes. Further studies are therefore needed to characterize the dose–response relationship between physical activity and specific subtypes and intensities of physical activity in relation to diverticular disease, preferably using an underlying metric that could be combined with other published studies, for example using MET-hours per week and/or hours per week of activity.…”

Characterization of Metabolically Healthy Obese People and Metabolically Unhealthy Normal-Weight People in a General Population Cohort of the ABCD Study

“…We also found that prevalences of gallbladder stones and liver steatosis were associated with body size category and metabolic health, even after stratifying for age, gender, and sedentary lifestyle. Gallbladder stones are frequently associated with diabetes [ 40 ], while liver steatosis, apart from being a condition frequently associated with diabetes, is considered to have an important role in promoting atherosclerosis itself [ 41 ]. Insulin resistance, as suggested by corrected HOMA-IR values, was higher in association with both overweight-obesity and MUH condition; a similar trend was also observed for hs-CRP blood concentrations.…”