Is the exercise effective for the prevention of upper respiratory tract infections?

Upper respiratory tract infections are one of the main causes of medical consultation in the world. Considering the lack of specific treatment, prevention becomes essential. It has been postulated that exercise could have a preventive role, but its clinical effectiveness remains a topic of discussion.

To answer this question we used Epistemonikos, the largest database of systematic reviews in health, which is maintained by screening multiple information sources, including MEDLINE, EMBASE, Cochrane, among others. We extracted data from the systematic reviews, reanalyzed data of primary studies, conducted a meta-analysis and generated a summary of findings table using the GRADE approach.

We identified four systematic reviews including fourteen studies overall, of which six were randomized trials. We concluded it is not clear whether exercise of moderate intensity prevents or not upper respiratory infections, because the certainty of the evidence is very low.