Impact of Multicomponent Physical Exercise and High Intensity Interval Training on Osteoporosis in Postmenopausal Women: protocol for a systematic review and Network meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials

Background: Osteoporosis is a progressive degenerative bone condition leading to increased fracture risk. Therefore, osteoporosis acknowledges around 200 million cases with about 70% of the cases occurring in postmenopausal women. Medicaments are often suggested to treat osteoporotic conditions; but physical exercise also plays an essential role. The current literature highlights multicomponent training (MCT) and high-intensity and high-impact exercises as physical exercise interventions that positively affect postmenopausal womens’ bone health. Furthermore, there is prior evidence of systematic reviews about the positive effects of both methods on the bone health of this population. Despite this prior evidence, no systematic reviews with metanalytic methods compare the effectiveness of the two interventions. Methods and analysis: The study will follow the guidelines of PRISMA (Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses) and was registered at the International Prospective Register of Systematic Reviews (PROSPERO) under the registration number (CRD42024604930). This systematic review and meta-analysis will include only Randomized controlled clinical trials (RCTs), which have verified the effects of one or both physical exercise methods in postmenopausal womens’ bone mineral density (BMD). The systematic search will be implemented at eight electronic databases, namely PubMed/MEDLINE, Web of Science (WoS), EBSCO, Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials (CENTRAL), Scopus, CINAHL and SPORTDiscus will be used to retrieve the data of interest. The RCTs ' risk of bias (RoB) will be assessed with RoB 2 Cochrane tool, and between-study heterogeneity will be checked through the analysis of Half-Cauchy distribution. Additionally, a Network meta-analysis will be applied to to compare the between-studies dose-response in the patients’ bone health. Discussion: In this study, we hope to find consistent results about the effects of MCT and HIIT in postmenopausal women with osteoporosis. Therefore, we also expect to observe between-intervention effects after the network meta-analysis approaches. This way, this study will significantly impact this field of knowledge. Ethics and dissemination: The design of this review protocol did not involve patients. PROSPERO registration number: CRD42024604930.