Table 1.

Search strategy adopted in the present comprehensive review of the literature for retrieving studies investigating the effects of physical activity and exercise on glucoregulatory hormones in elderly subjects.

Search Strategy Item	Details
Search string	(old OR elderly OR effect of age OR aging OR ageing) AND (physical activity OR sport OR exercise OR training) AND (insulin OR glucagon OR growth hormone OR IGF-1 OR glucoregulatory hormones OR cortisol OR catecholamines)
Searched databases	PubMed/MEDLINE, Scopus, ISI/Web of Science
Inclusion criteria	P (population): older subjects in good health
	I (intervention) / E (exposure): physical activity interventions; exposure to physical activity
	C (comparator / comparison): young subjects (both trained and untrained) and old untrained subjects
	O (outcome): changes in glucoregulatory hormones levels
	S (study design): original, primary research article
Exclusion criteria	P (population): young subjects; old frail subjects or with diseases (diabetes, obesity)
	I (intervention) / E (exposure): not exposed to physical activity / sports /exercise interventions or exposed to combined interventions (dietary intervention, supplementation, pharmacological treatment or other forms of manipulation) from which it was not possible to dissect the effect of training only
	C (comparator / comparison): absence of comparisons between age groups
	O (outcome): changes in glucoregulatory hormone levels not reported in detail or not clear
	S (study design): not original study (commentary, review, expert opinion, letter to editor, editorial)
Time filter	None applied (from inception)
Language filter	None applied (any language)