Dietary Weight Loss, Exercise, and Inflammation in Older Adults with Overweight or Obesity and Cardiometabolic Disease

Abstract

Objective: This study aimed to examine exercise modality during weight loss on change in inflammation among older adults with overweight or obesity and cardiometabolic disease.

Methods: A total of 222 older adults with a mean (SD) age of 66.9 (4.7) years and a mean (SD) BMI of 33.5 (3.5) kg/m2 were randomized to weight loss (WL; n = 68), WL plus aerobic training (WL + AT; n = 79), or WL plus resistance training (WL + RT; n = 75) for 18 months. C-reactive protein (CRP) and interleukin-6 were measured at baseline, 6 months, and 18 months.

Results: All groups lost significant weight from baseline to 18 months, with average adjusted changes of -5.5% for WL, -9.0% for WL + AT, and -10.1% for WL + RT. WL + RT and WL + AT lost significantly more weight than WL (P < 0.05). At 18 months, CRP values in WL + RT were significantly lower than WL (2.25 pg/mL vs. 3.38 pg/mL; P = 0.004). The only difference in interleukin-6 was that at 18 months, WL + RT was lower than WL + AT (2.32 pg/mL vs. 2.75 pg/mL; P = 0.03).

Conclusions: The addition of RT during WL was more effective at reducing levels of CRP than WL. Although results were in the expected direction, there was no difference in CRP between WL and WL + AT.

Trial registration: ClinicalTrials.gov NCT01547182.

Conflict of interest statement

Disclosures: None of the authors declare any conflict of interest related to this manuscript.

© 2019 The Obesity Society.

Figures

Figure 1.

Percent Change in Body Mass across the study by Treatment Group controlling for Sex, Site, Wave within Site, and baseline weight

Figure 2.

The 6- and 18-month Effects of the Interventions on CRP Controlling for Sex, Site, Wave within Site and Baseline CRP (The analysis was performed on the log-transformed scale. We then exponentiated the estimated means and confidence interval limits to return to the original scale for this plot. For the mixed model, the n at baseline was 219, it was 210 at 6 months, and 178 at 18 months.)

Figure 3.

The 6- and 18-month Effects of the Interventions on IL-6 Controlling for Sex, Site, Wave within Site, and Baseline IL-6 (The analysis was performed on the log-transformed scale. We then exponentiated the estimated means and confidence interval limits to return to the original scale for this plot. For the mixed model, the n at baseline was 219, it was 210 at 6 months, and 178 at 18 months.)

Figure 4.

The 6- and 18-month Effects of the Interventions on CRP Controlling for Sex, Site, Wave within Site, Baseline CRP, and Weight Loss from Baseline to 6- and 18-months (The analysis was performed on the log-transformed scale. We then exponentiated the estimated means and confidence interval limits to return to the original scale for this plot. For the mixed model, the n at baseline was 222, it was 211 at 6 months, and 181 at 18 months.)

Figure 5.

The 6- and 18-month Effects of the Interventions on IL-6 Controlling for Sex, Site, Wave within Site, Baseline IL-6, and Weight Loss from Baseline to 6- and 18-months (The analysis was performed on the log-transformed scale. We then exponentiated the estimated means and confidence interval limits to return to the original scale for this plot. For the mixed model, the n at baseline was 222, it was 211 at 6 months, and 181 at 18 months.)