Progressive resistive exercise interventions for adults living with HIV/AIDS

Main results indicated that performing progressive resistive exercise or a combination of progressiveresistive exercise and aerobic exercise at least three times a week for at least four weeks appears to be safe and may lead to statistically and possibly clinically important increases in body weight and composition.

Abstract

Progressive resistive exercise or a combination of progressive resistive exercise and aerobic exercise appear to be safe and may be beneficial for adults living with HIV/AIDS. These findings are limited by the small number of studies that could be included in meta-analyses, small sample sizes and variable participant withdrawal rates among included studies. Future research would benefit from including participants at various stages of HIV infection, a greater proportion of female participants, and participants in a variety of age groups to increase the generalizability of results. Furthermore, future research would benefit from studies with larger sample sizes that conduct an "intention-to-treat" analysis (analysis of participants based on the groups to which they were originally allocated) to better understand outcomes of participants that withdraw from exercise interventions.