Dose response: variation with age, sex, and health status

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to summarize the literature on the i nfluence of age, sex, and health status on the changes in systolic (SBP) an d diastolic blood pressure (DBP), triglycerides (TG), and high-density lipo protein cholesterol (HDL-C) consequent to exercise training. Methods: A MED LINE search was performed from January 1966 through August 2000 to identify studies that have investigated the effects of age, sex, and health status on the changes in the outcome variables with exercise training. References from these studies and from review and meta-analysis studies were also revi ewed. Results and Conclusions: The results indicate that age has little or no influence on the changes in SEP, DBP, TG, and HDL-C in response to exerc ise training. When looking at sex, females appear to have an attenuated res ponse to exercise training compared with males with respect to SEP, DBP, an d HDL-C, but the data for TG are equivocal. Finally, there appears to be mo re favorable changes in resting SEP and DBP, TG, and HDL-C in unhealthy sub jects (hypertensive and post-MI patients) when compared with healthy subjec ts.