Physical activity and acute exercise benefit influenza vaccination response: A systematic review with individual participant data meta-analysis

Abstract

Whether the vaccine adjuvant potential of acute exercise is uniform among different populations, e.g., inactive persons, is unknown. This meta-analysis examines influenza vaccine antibody responses and the effect of physical activity, acute exercise, and their interaction. Inclusion criteria comprised randomized controlled trials with acute exercise intervention and influenza vaccination antibody measurements at baseline and 4–6 weeks, and participant baseline physical activity measurement; there were no exclusion criteria. Searching via six databases (Medline, Embase, CINAHL, Scopus, Web of Science, and Physiotherapy Evidence) and two clinical registries (WHO and NIH), nine studies were identified and assessed with the Cochrane revised risk-of-bias tool. Data analysis comprised one-stage random-effects generalized linear mixed-effects models with random intercept. Seven of nine identified studies, all of high risk of bias, provided data for 550 included participants. Clinical measures of antibody response tended to be higher in the acute-exercised participants compared to rested controls and physically active compared to inactive. Physical activity significantly increased H1 strain seroconversion (adjusted odds ratio (aOR) 1.69, 95%CI: 1.02–2.82) among all participants and titer response (aOR 1.20, 95%CI: 1.03–1.39) among the acute exercise group. Increasing age frequently reduced immunogenic responses whereas body mass index and sex had little-to-no effect. Adjuvant effects were more pronounced with interventions exercising the same arm in which the vaccination was administered. H1 response was increased by both physical activity and the acute exercise-physical activity interaction. Given the observed modifications by age and the subset analysis suggesting the benefit is more pronounced in older populations, future attention is due for acute exercise-PA interactions to impact vaccination response in the at-risk population of older adults. Further, we identify localized exercise as the likely most-effective protocol and encourage its use to augment the available evidence.