Effects of aerobic exercise on body self-esteem among Chinese college students: A meta-analysis

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the effect of aerobic exercise on five dimensions of physical self-worth, exercise capacity, physical condition, physical attractiveness, and physical quality in body self-esteem of Chinese college students. METHODS: By searching PubMed, Web of Science, Cochrane Library, CNIK database, VIP database, WANFANG database platform, we searched for the subject terms or keywords "body self-esteem", "Chinese college students", "Systematic evaluation", "Aerobic exercise", "Exercise intervention", “Meta-Analysis”. The search method was a combination of subject terms and keywords and title, and the search period was from database creation to The search was conducted from database creation to May 2022. A total of 3221 articles were searched, and 9 articles were included in the study through repeated screening. Risk of bias was assessed with Cochrane and the quality of studies in the literature was assessed using Grade pro software. The outcome indicators of the included literature were analysed using review manager 5.4 software and StataMP 17.0 software. RESULTS: Nine papers including 1613 subjects were included. results of Meta-analysis showed that aerobic exercise was effective in improving physical self-worth (WMD = 1.46, 95% CI: 1.08–1.83, p<0.001), improving exercise capacity (WMD = 1.62, 95% CI: 1.23–2.01, p<0.001), improving physical attractiveness (WMD = 1.32, 95% CI: 0.98–1.67, p<0.001), improved physical condition (WMD = 1.32, 95% CI: 0.98–1.67, P<0.001), improved physical fitness (WMD = 1.51, 95% CI: 1.07–1.95, P<0.001). The differences were all statistically significant. CONCLUSION: Aerobic exercise can effectively improve the body self-esteem of Chinese college students. In exercise, male students pursue is athletic ability and physical fitness, and female students pursue is the sense of physical self-worth and physical attractiveness. Aerobic exercise has a greater increase in body self-esteem for obese or Obese college students. Aerobics and physical dance are the most cost-effective for improving body self-esteem. Medium-intensity relative to low-intensity exercise was effective for body self-esteem intervention. A single exercise session of 90 minutes was more effective than a single 30-minute session in boosting body self-esteem, and the overall intervention duration of 16 weeks was more effective than 10 weeks.