Clinical Effectiveness of Boxing Training in Individuals With Elevated Blood Pressure or Stage 1 Hypertension

Boxing Training Effects on Cardiovascular Risk, Quality of Life, Endothelial Function, and Blood Flow Patterns in Individuals With Elevated Blood Pressure or Stage 1 Hypertension

The goal of this clinical trial is to determine whether boxing training reduces cardiovascular risk in elevated blood pressure or hypertension stage 1 individuals.

The main questions it aims to answer are (1) if boxing training reduces peripheral and central blood pressure and (2) if boxing training improves cardiovascular function in elevated blood pressure or hypertension stage 1 individuals.

Participants with elevated blood pressure or hypertension stage 1 will be randomly divided into a control group or an intervention group. The latter group will be involved in boxing training, 3 days per week for 6 weeks.

Researchers will compare clinical and cardiovascular outcomes between the control and the intervention group.

Study Overview

• Status: Completed
• Conditions: Hypertension; Elevated Blood Pressure
• Intervention / Treatment: Other: Boxing Training; Other: Control flexibility

• Study Type: Interventional
• Enrollment (Actual): 24
• Phase: Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

Study Locations

• United States
  • Texas
    • El Paso, Texas, United States, 79968
      • The University of Texas at El Paso

Participation Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

• Ages Eligible for Study: Adult; Older Adult
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: No

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

• ≥18 years old.
• Systolic blood pressure between 120-139 mmHg and/or diastolic blood pressure between 80-89 mmHg obtained from 2 different days.
• an estimated 10-year risk of CVD ≤10%, calculated by the ACC/AHA Pooled Cohort Equations.
• no current participation in 3 or more days per week of endurance or resistance exercise training.

Exclusion Criteria:

• non-controlled cardiac, pulmonary, or metabolic diseases.
• smoking, consumption of nutritional supplements containing antioxidants.
• any physical impairment to exercise.

Study Plan

How is the study designed?

Design Details

• Primary Purpose: Treatment
• Allocation: Randomized
• Interventional Model: Parallel Assignment
• Masking: Double

Number of Arms

2

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm	Intervention / Treatment
Experimental: Boxing; The boxing training intervention will consist of three exercise sessions per week on nonconsecutive days for six weeks	Other: Boxing Training; The boxing training intervention will consist of three exercise sessions per week on nonconsecutive days for six weeks. Participants will be instructed to complete 10 rounds of three minutes with a one-minute resting period interspersed. Four rounds will consist of heavy bag punching (e.g. straight, jab, hook) at 60% VO2max and three rounds at 90-95% VO2max, while the remaining 3 rounds will be focused on mitt work at 60% VO2max.; Other Names: Exercise
Placebo Comparator: Control; The control group will perform three days per week 10 minutes a flexibility intervention.	Other: Control flexibility; The control group will perform three days per week 10 minutes of dynamic articular movement, five minutes of uni pedal stance, and five minutes of stretching of the upper limbs for six weeks.

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Change from baseline brachial blood pressure after week six	Resting systolic and diastolic blood pressure (mmHg)	pre-intervention and immediately after the intervention

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Central Blood Pressure	Pulse wave analysis (mmHg)	pre-intervention and immediately after the intervention
Vascular function	Flow mediated dilation (%)	pre-intervention and immediately after the intervention
Plethysmography	Forearm and Calf Blood Flow (ml/min/100 ml tissue)	pre-intervention and immediately after the intervention
Maximum Oxygen Uptake	Cardiopulmonary Test (ml/kg/min)	pre-intervention and immediately after the intervention
Nitric Oxide Bioavailability	Blood Biomarker NOx (μmol/L)	pre-intervention and immediately after the intervention
Body Fat Percentage	Dual energy x-ray absorptiometry Scan to assess Body Fat %	pre-intervention and immediately after the intervention
Lean Mass	Dual energy x-ray absorptiometry Scan to assess lean mass (kg)	pre-intervention and immediately after the intervention
Quality of Life measured by the short-form 36 (SF-36)	The short form 36 (SF-36) is a short survey that covers a total of 8 sub-dimensions related to physical and mental health: (1) Physical Functioning, (2) Role Limitations due to Physical Problems, (3) Social Functioning, (4) Bodily Pain, (5) General Mental Health, (6) Role Limitations due to Mental Problems, (7) Vitality, and (8) General Health Perceptions. The SF-36 includes a diverse mixture of continuous item scaling methods and is comprised of 10 items with balanced multi-item response formats (range from 1 to 5), 7 items with a dichotomous response format (1 or 2), and 19 items with non-balanced multi-item response formats (nine items range from 1 to 3 and ten items range from 1 to 6). To obtain the raw score for each sub-dimension, 10 items are reversed. Then, raw values for each sub-dimension are summed. Finally, the raw scores are transformed to a 0-to-100 scale for each sub-dimension. Higher scores indicate higher Quality of Life from 0 (worst) to 100 (best).	pre-intervention and immediately after the intervention
Arterial Stiffness	Pulse wave velocity from carotid to femoral artery (m/s)	pre-intervention and immediately after the intervention
C Reactive Protein (CRP) to assess inflammation	Blood Biomarker CRP (mg/L)	pre-intervention and immediately after the intervention
Interleukin-6 (IL-6) to assess inflammation	Blood Biomarker IL-6 (pg/ml)	pre-intervention and immediately after the intervention
Tumor necrosis factor alfa (TNFα) to assess inflammation	Blood Biomarker TNFα (pg/ml)	pre-intervention and immediately after the intervention
8-isoprostane to assess inflammation	Blood Biomarker 8-isoprostane (pg/ml)	pre-intervention and immediately after the intervention
Superoxide dismutase (SOD) to assess oxidative stress	Blood Biomarker SOD (mU/ml)	pre-intervention and immediately after the intervention
Total Antioxidant Capacity (TAC) to assess oxidative stress	Blood Biomarker TAC (mM/ml)	pre-intervention and immediately after the intervention
Lipid Profile	Blood Biomarkers HDL-C, LDL-C, and total cholesterol (mg/dl)	pre-intervention and immediately after the intervention
Weight	Weight in kilograms	pre-intervention and immediately after the intervention
Height	Height in meters	pre-intervention and immediately after the intervention

Collaborators and Investigators

• Sponsor: University of Texas, El Paso

Study record dates

Study Major Dates

• Study Start (Actual): January 15, 2020
• Primary Completion (Actual): March 15, 2020
• Study Completion (Actual): March 15, 2020

Study Registration Dates

• First Submitted: November 22, 2023
• First Submitted That Met QC Criteria: May 9, 2024
• First Posted (Actual): May 14, 2024

Study Record Updates

• Last Update Posted (Actual): May 14, 2024
• Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria: May 9, 2024
• Last Verified: May 1, 2024

More Information

Terms related to this study

• Additional Relevant MeSH Terms: Cardiovascular Diseases; Vascular Diseases; Hypertension
• Other Study ID Numbers: 1364179-3

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

• Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?: NO
• IPD Plan Description: Only the PI will analyze the collected data.

Drug and device information, study documents

• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product: No
• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product: No