Skip to main content
  • Letter to the Editor
  • Open access
  • Published:

Comment on: The Benefits of Resistance Training in Obese Adolescents: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis

A Letter to this article was published on 08 February 2023

A Systematic Review to this article was published on 04 September 2022

Dear Editor

The study by Ribeiro et al. [1] described the benefits of resistance training in obese adolescents, but it is necessary to highlight some methodological issues to facilitate subsequent studies.

First, as a matter of detail, I suggest that authors should consider using a combination of medical subject terms (Mesh) and keywords when developing their search strategy, such as adding “resistance training”[Mesh] (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/mesh/?term=resistance+training) and “Adolescent”[Mesh] (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/mesh/68000293) to the current search strategy. It is possible that some crucial studies were missed by using keywords alone.

Second, there is an error in the forest plot drawn by the authors. Muscle strength, body mass index, cardiorespiratory fitness, waist circumference, lean mass, body fat, and insulin sensitivity are not the same type of outcome, but the authors combined the weights of all studies, reducing the degree of influence of each study on the overall outcome. The correct approach should be (in the case of cardiorespiratory fitness and waist circumference): tick “subtotals only” in “analysis details” of “properties” in the interface of Revman software forest plot” so that each result is independent, as shown in Fig. 1. Although the pooled effect size remains the same, the weight is increased.

Fig. 1
figure 1

Forest plot of comparison for cardiorespiratory fitness and waist circumference

Third, the study process for this systematic review and meta-analysis was incomplete. The study included > 10 trials, and publication bias should be determined by plotting funnel plots [2] and using sensitivity analysis to determine the stability of the results. Based on these results, it is also recommended to use the Grading of Recommendations Assessment, Development, and Evaluation approach [3] to assess the evidence for resistance training on different outcomes to facilitate clinical practice recommendations.

Availability of data and material

Not applicable.

References

  1. Ribeiro B, Forte P, Vinhas R, Marinho DA, Faíl LB, Pereira A, Vieira F, Neiva HP. The benefits of resistance training in obese adolescents: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Sports Med Open. 2022;8(1):109. https://doi.org/10.1186/s40798-022-00501-3.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  2. Sterne J, Harbord R. Funnel plots in meta-analysis. Stata J. 2004;4:127–41. https://doi.org/10.1177/1536867X0400400204.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  3. Guyatt GH, Oxman AD, Vist GE, Kunz R, Falck-Ytter Y, Alonso-Coello P, Schünemann HJ. GRADE: an emerging consensus on rating quality of evidence and strength of recommendations. BMJ. 2008;336(7650):924–6. https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.39489.470347.AD.

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

Not applicable.

Funding

There was no financial support.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Contributions

The author read and approved the final manuscript.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Fan Zhang.

Ethics declarations

Ethics approval and consent to participate

Not applicable.

Consent for publication

Not applicable.

Competing interests

The author declares no competing interests.

Additional information

Publisher's Note

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Rights and permissions

Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Zhang, F. Comment on: The Benefits of Resistance Training in Obese Adolescents: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis. Sports Med - Open 9, 9 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1186/s40798-022-00543-7

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1186/s40798-022-00543-7