Background: High-intensity interval training (HIIT) is an emerging exercise strategy and is considered to be a recipe for health promotion. This study aimed to systematically identify collaboration networks, track research trends, highlight current hotspots, and predict future frontiers in HIIT and its applications in health promotion since the start of the new century.Methods: Relevant original publications were obtained from the Science Citation Index Expanded of the Web of Science Core Collection (WoSCC) database between 2001 and 2020. CiteSpace and VOSviewer software were used to perform bibliometric visualization and comparative analysis of involved indexes that included countries, institutions, journals, authors, references, and keywords.Results: A total of 572 papers were included, and the trend of annual publications showed a remarkable growth. The United States and the University of Exeter were the most productive country and institutions, respectively, with 107 and 18 publications, respectively. European Journal of Applied Physiology took the lead in the number of published articles, and Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise ranked first in the cocitation counts. Barker AR and Gibala MJ were considered as the most productive and the most highly-cited authors.Conclusions: “Health risks,” “adolescent,” and “aging” are the three noteworthy topics during the evolution of HIIT-health promotion (HIIT-HP) research. The current research hotspots of HIIT and its practices in the health promotion domain lies in “metabolic diseases,” “cardiovascular diseases,” “neurological diseases,” and “musculoskeletal diseases.” The authors summarize that “prevention and rehabilitation,” “micro and molecular level,” and “cognition and mental health” are becoming frontiers and focus on the health topics related to HIIT in the upcoming years, which are worthy of further exploration.

BackgroundTwo related lifestyle behaviors associated with sleep disturbance are sedentary behavior and physical exercise participation. We aimed to use a population-based study to disentangle the relationships between sedentary behavior, exercise, and sleep disturbance based on blood-cell-based inflammatory biomarkers.MethodsA total of 22,599 participants from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) were included in the analyses. Sleep disturbance was assessed according to the NHANES questionnaire. Exercise participation ansd sedentary behavior were evaluated by the global physical activity questionnaire. The inflammatory biomarkers in the examination were white blood cell (WBC) count, neutrophil count (NEU), neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio (NLR), and systemic immune inflammation index (SII). A complex multistage sampling design and weighted multivariable logistic regression were applied for further analysis. Mediation models were constructed to figure out the mediating role of inflammatory biomarkers.ResultsThe weighted prevalence of sleep disturbance was 24.17%. Sedentary behavior and exercise were associated with sleep disturbance after full adjustment [for sedentary behavior, OR (95% CI): 1.261 (1.154, 1.377); for exercise, OR (95% CI): 0.849 (0.757, 0.953)]. In severe sedentary behavior groups, the mitigation effect of exercise on sleep disturbance was observed [OR (95% CI): 0.687 (0.551, 0.857)]. For the mechanism, strong associations were detected between inflammatory biomarkers and sleep disturbance. Mediation analysis showed that WBC, NEU, NLR, and SII mediated the statistical association between sedentary behavior and sleep disturbance with proportions (%) of 2.09, 2.27, 1.76, and 0.82, respectively.ConclusionsOur data suggested that sedentary behavior was a risk factor for sleep disturbance. Blood-cell-based inflammatory biomarkers were an easily accessible and cost-effective strategy for identifying sleep disturbance and also significantly mediated the association between sedentary behavior and sleep disturbance. Exercise was proved to be effective in severe sedentary behavior groups to improve sleep disturbance symptoms, while the internal mechanism needed further exploration.

While studies on the health benefits of Tai Chi have sprung up over the past four decades, few have engaged in collecting global data, estimating the developing trends, and conducting reviews from the perspective of visualization and bibliometric analysis. This study aimed to provide a summary of the global scientific outputs on Tai Chi research from 1980 to 2020, explore the frontiers, identify cooperation networks, track research trends and highlight emerging hotspots. Relevant publications were downloaded from the Web of Science Core Collection (WoSCC) database between 1980 and 2020. Bibliometric visualization and comparative analysis of authors, cited authors, journals, co-cited journals, institutions, countries, references, and keywords were systematically conducted using CiteSpace software. A total of 1078 publications satisfied the search criteria, and the trend of annual related publications was generally in an upward trend, although with some fluctuations. China (503) and Harvard University (74) were the most prolific country and institution, respectively. Most of the related researches were published in the journals with a focus on sport sciences, alternative medicine, geriatrics gerontology, and rehabilitation. Our results indicated that the current concerns and difficulties of Tai Chi research are “Intervention method”, “Targeted therapy”, “Applicable population”, “Risk factors”, and “Research quality”. The frontiers and promising domains of Tai Chi exercise in the health science field are preventions and rehabilitations of “Fall risk”, “Cardiorespiratory related disease”, “Stroke”, “Parkinson’s disease”, and “Depression”, which should receive more attention in the future.

Background: Exercise is medicine. Multiple studies on the effects and mechanisms of exercise in treating depression among teenagers and adolescents have been widely reported. However, literature involving scientometric analysis of this topic is sparse. Here, we endeavored to conduct a bibliometric study and visualization analysis to give a bird's-eye view of publications between 2000 and 2020 on exercise therapy treating depression.Methods: Relevant original publications were obtained from the Science Citation Index Expanded in the Web of Science Core Collection (WoSCC) database between 2000 and 2020. CiteSpace (5.7.R 5) and VOSviewer (1.6.16) software were used to perform bibliometric analysis of countries, institutions, categories, journals, authors, references, and keywords involved in this topic.Results: A total number of 975 articles on this field were retrieved from the WoSCC database and we identified an overall increase in the amount of publications over the past two decades, with the United States and Harvard University leading the field. Most related publications were published in the journals with a focus on sport, medicine, rehabilitation, psychology, and health, as represented by the dual-map overlay. A series of authors and co-cited authors were identified as main contributors in the exercise-depression-teenager domain. Three major clusters were explored based on the reference co-citation analysis: “exercise,” “suicide,” and “concussion”.Conclusions: Current concerns and hotspots of exercise intervention in depression treatments were summarized by “individual level,” “social level,” “role of exercise,” and “research quality.” We considered that the following four directions were potential future perspectives: “research on the effect of specific exercise intervention,” “research on the essence of exercise and sports,” “research on the combination mode of ‘exercise + X',” and “research on the micro and molecular level,” which should receive more attention.

Objective: It remains unclear whether Tai Chi is effective for walking function and posture control improvements in aged populations with knee osteoarthritis. The aim of this study was to systematically evaluate the effects of Tai Chi on improving walking function and posture control in elderly patients with knee osteoarthritis by updating the latest trial evidence. Methods: Web of Science, PubMed/Medline, Embase, Scopus, PEDro, and Cochrane library were searched up to October 1, 2020 to identify RCTs evaluating Tai Chi for improving walking function and posture control in older adults with knee osteoarthritis. The primary outcomes were walking function and posture control. Meta-analysis was performed with RevMan Version 5.3 software. Results: A total of 603 participants with knee osteoarthritis in the 11 trials were included. The results of meta-analysis showed that: The Tai Chi group was associated with better performance in 6-minute walk test (6 MWT), time up and go test (TUG) and “Western Ontario and McMaster Universities (WOMAC) Osteoarthritis Index” Physical Function Score than the control group ([MD: 46.67, 95% CI 36.91–56.43, P < .001]), ([MD: −0.89, 95% CI −1.16 to −0.61, P < .001]), ([MD: −11.28, 95% CI −13.33 to −9.24, P < .001]). Conclusion: This meta-analysis provided evidence from 11 RCTs that Tai Chi could be an excellent physical training strategy for improving walking function and posture control in older adults with knee osteoarthritis. Assuming that Tai Chi is at least effective and safe in most areas, it can be used as an adjuvant and reliable physical training strategy for walking function upgrading and balance control improvements for older patients with knee osteoarthritis.

Depressive symptoms are major public health problems. Leisure-time Physical activity (LPA) and dietary inflammatory preference are emerging factors that tends to affect the mental health status. There is limited evidence regarding the joint influence of LPA and dietary status on the prevalence of depression. This study was a cross-sectional study, which used a nationwide represented sample from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) to assess the relationship among LPA, diet status and depression. Depression and LPA status was reported by the 9-item Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9) and Physical Activity Questionnaire (PAQ), respectively. To assess dietary inflammatory preferences, dietary inflammatory index (DII) was applied based on a 24-h dietary recall interview. A total of 11,078 subjects was included in this study and weighted participants were 89,682,020. Weighted multivariable linear regression showed that DII was negatively associated with LPA after full adjustment, with β (95% CI): −0.487 (−0.647, −0.327). Weighted multivariable logistic regression showed that LPA was significantly associated with depressive symptoms after full adjustment, with odds ratios OR (95% CIs): 0.986 (0.977, 0.995). By DII stratification analysis, this phenomenon was also existed in groups with anti-inflammatory diet. Mediation effect analysis was further performed, which showed that DII significantly mediating the association between LPA and depression with proportion mediated as 3.94%. Our findings indicated the mediating role of DII in the association between LPA condition and incident depression. More well-designed studies are still needed to validate the causal relationship.

Background Trouble sleeping is one of the major health issues nowadays. Current evidence on the correlation between muscle quality and trouble sleeping is limited. Methods A cross-sectional study design was applied and participants aged from 18 to 60 years in the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) 2011–2014 was used for analysis. Muscle quality index (MQI) was quantitatively calculated as handgrip strength (HGS, kg) sum/ arm and appendicular skeletal muscle mass (ASM, kg) by using the sum of the non-dominant hand and dominant hand. Sleeping data was obtained by interviews and self-reported by individuals. The main analyses utilized weighted multivariable logistic regression models according to the complex multi-stage sampling design of NHANES. Restricted cubic spline model was applied to explore the non-linear relationship between MQI and trouble sleeping. Moreover, subgroup analyses concerning sociodemographic and lifestyle factors were conducted in this study. Results 5143 participants were finally included in. In the fully adjusted model, an increased level of MQI was significantly associated with a lower odds ratio of trouble sleeping, with OR = 0.765, 95% CI: (0.652,0.896), p = 0.011. Restricted cubic spline showed a non-linear association between MQI and trouble sleeping. However, it seemed that the prevalence of trouble sleeping decreased with increasing MQI until it reached 2.362, after which the odds ratio of trouble sleeping reached a plateau. Subgroup analyses further confirmed that the negative association between the MQI and trouble sleeping was consistent and robust across groups. Conclusion Overall, this study revealed that MQI can be used as a reliable predictor in odds ratio of trouble sleeping. Maintaining a certain level of muscle mass would be beneficial to sleep health. However, this was a cross-sectional study, and causal inference between MQI and trouble sleeping was worthy of further exploration.

Short sleep is a common issue nowadays. The purpose of this study was to investigate prefrontal cortical hemodynamics by evaluating changes in concentrations of oxygenated hemoglobin (HbO) in cognitive tests among short-sleep young adults and to explore the relationship between sleep duration, physical activity level, and cognitive function in this specific population. A total of 46 participants (25 males and 21 females) were included in our study, and among them, the average sleep duration was 358 min/day. Stroop performance in the short sleep population was linked to higher levels cortical activation in distinct parts of the left middle frontal gyrus. This study found that moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA) was significantly associated with lower accuracy of incongruent Stroop test. The dose-response relationship between sleep duration and Stroop performance under different levels of light-intensity physical activity (LPA) and MVPA was further explored, and increasing sleep time for different PA level was associated with better Stroop performance. In summary, this present study provided neurobehavioral evidence between cortical hemodynamics and cognitive function in the short sleep population. Furthermore, our findings indicated that, in younger adults with short sleep, more MVPA was associated with worse cognitive performance. Short sleep young adults should increase sleep time, rather than more MVPA, to achieve better cognitive function.