Effect of Resistance Exercise on Body Composition and Functional Capacity in Older Women with Sarcopenic Obesity—A Systematic Review with Narrative Synthesis

Abstract

Background: Resistance exercise has shown effectiveness in reducing various risk factors related to sarcopenic obesity (SO) compared to other types of exercise, e.g., aerobic exercise. Objective: This systematic review evaluates the effect of resistance exercise on body composition, muscular strength, and functional capacity among older women with sarcopenic obesity aged ≥ 60 years. Methods: This systematic review is registered on PROSPERO (registration No. CRD42023394603) and follows the PRISMA guidelines. The following electronic databases were used to search the literature: Pedro, Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials, Embase, PubMed, and Web of Science. We included only RCTs that investigated the effect of resistance exercise on body composition and functional capacity. Two independent reviewers conducted the process of study selection and data extraction. Results: The search strategy retrieved 687 results. One hundred and twenty-six records were deleted as duplicates. Consequently, 534 studies were excluded after the title/abstract assessment. After further detailed evaluation of twenty-seven full texts, seven RCTs were included; all the RCTs examined the isolated effect of resistance exercise in women with sarcopenic obesity. The included studies comprised 306 participants, with an average age of 64 to 72 years. We noticed a trend of improvement in the included studies among the intervention groups compared to the control groups among the different outcomes. The study protocol was inconsistent for the intervention settings, duration, and outcomes. Including a modest number of trials made it impossible to perform data meta-analysis. Conclusions: Heterogeneity among studies regarding training protocols and the outcome measures reported limited robust conclusions. Still, resistance exercise intervention can improve body composition and functional capacity among elderly women with sarcopenic obesity.