Table 2.

Summary of findings for glucose, insulin and glucagon outcomes.

Acute continuous aerobic exercise compared with resting conditions in healthy adults
Patient or population: healthy adults Setting: laboratory environment Intervention: acute continuous aerobic exercise Comparison: rest
Outcomes	Relative effect (95% CI)	Number of participants (studies)	Quality of the evidence (GRADE)	Comments
Glucose (mmol/L)	MD 0.05 mmol/L lower with exercise (0.22 lower to 0.13 higher)	391 participants (45 studies)	⊕  ⊕  ⊕  ⊝  Moderatea	Glucose concentrations moderated by metabolic state, exercise mode, exercise duration and maximal aerobic capacity
Insulin (pmol/L)	MD 18.07 pmol/L lower with exercise (5.66 lower to 30.47 lower)	377 participants (38 studies)	⊕  ⊕  ⊕  ⊝  Moderateb	Insulin concentrations moderated by metabolic state
Glucagon (ng/L)	MD 24.60 ng/L higher with exercise (16.25 higher to 32.95 higher)	47 participants (5 studies)	⊕  ⊕  ⊕  ⊝  Moderatec

CI confidence interval, MD mean difference

GRADE Working Group grades of evidence: High quality: we are very confident that the true effect lies close to that of the estimate of the effect. Moderate quality: we are moderately confident in the effect estimate: the true effect is likely to be close to the estimate of the effect, but there is a possibility that it is substantially different. Low quality: our confidence in the effect estimate is limited: the true effect may be substantially different from the estimate of the effect. Very low quality: we have very little confidence in the effect estimate: the true effect is likely to be substantially different from the estimate of effect

^aThere was considerable heterogeneity (I² = 91.08%) that could not be explained by sub-group analyses or meta-regression

^bThere was considerable heterogeneity (I² = 95.39%) that could not be explained by sub-group analyses or meta-regression

^cThere was considerable heterogeneity (I² = 79.36%) that could not be explained by sub-group analyses or meta-regression