Jeff Scott Coombes

The University of Queensland | UQ · School of Human Movement and Nutrition Sciences

New findings: What is the central question of this study? We sought to investigate whether peripheral and cerebrovascular function are impaired in early and late postmenopausal females compared with premenopausal females, while also accounting for nitric oxide and estradiol levels. What is the main finding and its importance? We observed no differ...

Background High-Intensity Interval Training (HIIT) involves bursts of high-intensity exercise interspersed with lower-intensity exercise recovery. HIIT may benefit cardiometabolic health in people with nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH).AimsWe aimed to examine the safety, feasibility, and efficacy of 12-weeks of supervised HIIT compared with a sha...

Introduction Epidemiological evidence suggests that both poor cardiovascular fitness and low muscle mass or strength markedly increase the rate of cognitive decline and incident dementia in older adults. Results from exercise trials for the improvement of cognition in older adults with mild cognitive impairment (MCI) have reported mixed results. Th...

Objectives To describe the quantity and cost of in-person and telehealth exercise physiology (EP) reimbursed under the Medicare Benefits Schedule (MBS) in Australia before and during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic.Methods This study uses publicly available MBS data to describe EP services (in-person and telehealth) reimbursed by M...

The effect of age and sex on intracranial and extracranial cerebrovascular function is poorly understood. We investigated the relationships between age, sex and cerebrovascular reactivity (CVR) to hypercapnia in 73 healthy adults (18-80 years, N=39 female). CVR to hypercapnia was assessed in the middle cerebral artery (MCA) using transcranial Doppl...

Alterations in body composition, in particular sarcopenia and sarcopenic obesity, are complications of liver cirrhosis associated with adverse outcomes. This systematic review aimed to evaluate the effect of diet and/or exercise interventions on body composition (muscle or fat) in adults with cirrhosis. Five databases were searched from inception t...

The aim of this study was to compare the kinetic response of middle cerebral artery blood velocity (MCAv) to moderate and heavy-intensity cycling in adults, and explore the relationship between maximal oxygen uptake (V̇O 2max ) and MCAv kinetics. Seventeen healthy adults (23.8±2.4 years, 9 females) completed a ramp incremental test to exhaustion on...

Objective To investigate the effectiveness of videoconferencing exercise interventions for people with chronic diseases. Design Systematic review incorporating meta-analysis. Data sources PubMed, Cinahl, MEDLINE, Web of Science, Embase and Scopus. Eligibility criteria The current literature was searched following Preferred Reporting Items for Sy...

Background While exercise training is beneficial in the prevention and management of many chronic diseases, the role of exercise training in children and adolescents with congenital heart disease is less understood. We sought to determine the safety and efficacy of exercise training in children and adolescents with congenital heart disease. Method...

Objective: Lower cerebrovascular reactivity (CVR) to hypercapnia is associated with increased risk of age-related cognitive decline and all-cause mortality. Despite the important clinical implications of CVR, evidence of the physiological changes across the healthy adult lifespan is conflicting, with limited findings in females. The aim of this st...

Introduction: Macro- and microvascular dysfunction elevate the risk of cardiovascular disease (CVD). Heat therapy has the potential to improve vascular health and reduce CVD risk, but the optimal length of heat stress exposure is unknown. We hypothesized that 1) acute whole body heat stress (WBHS) would increase vascular function and 2) a longer W...

Objectives To compare the short- and long-term effects of high intensity interval training (HIIT) with usual care moderate intensity continuous training (MICT) on systemic vascular function and stiffness in patients with coronary artery disease undergoing a cardiac rehabilitation program. Design Randomized controlled trial. Methods Fifty-four pat...

Objective This study aims to examine the effects of one-year, once-weekly high-intensity interval training (HIIT) on body adiposity and liver fat in adults with central obesity. Methods One-hundred and twenty adults aged 18–60 years with central obesity (body mass index ≥25, waist circumference ≥90 cm for men and ≥80 cm for women). This is an asse...

People with type 2 diabetes (T2D) are at a greater risk of cardiovascular disease than the general population. Both non‐modifiable (age) and modifiable (low aerobic fitness, high body fatness) factors are separately predictive of cardiovascular risk, although they often occur concomitantly. This study aimed to examine the (1) association between ag...

Objectives To develop Australian guidelines on physical activity/exercise during pregnancy and the postpartum period. Design Critical 'umbrella' reviews of the scientific evidence, combined with adaptation of recently published guidelines. Method A five stage approach included: identification of key source documents (including national PA/exercis...

High blood pressure (BP) is a leading risk factor for cardiovascular disease (CVD). The identification of high BP is conventionally based on in-clinic (resting) BP measures, performed within primary health care settings. However, many cases of high BP go unrecognised or remain inadequately controlled. Thus, there is a need for complementary setting...

BACKGROUND Background: The metabolic syndrome (MetS) is common across many complex chronic disease groups. Advances in health technology have provided opportunities to support lifestyle interventions. Implementation of health technology driven services in a tertiary setting remains untested. OBJECTIVE The purpose of this study is to test the feasi...

Background: The metabolic syndrome is common across many complex chronic disease groups. Advances in health technology have provided opportunities to support lifestyle interventions. Objective: The purpose of this study is to test the feasibility of a health technology-assisted lifestyle intervention in a patient-led model of care. Methods: Th...

Exercise is positively associated with higher microbial diversity, but there is limited information on exercise intensity's effect on gut microbiome composition and function in clinical populations. This study examines whether different intensities of exercise exert differential effects on gut microbiome composition and function in low active peopl...

Background The gut microbiome has been associated with cardiorespiratory fitness. Objective To assess the effects of oligofructose (FOS)-enriched inulin supplementation on the gut microbiome and the peak oxygen uptake (V̇O2peak) response to high-intensity interval training (HIIT). Methods The study was a randomized controlled trial. Forty sedenta...

Background Supervised lifestyle interventions have the potential to significantly improve physical activity and fitness in patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD). Methods To assess the efficacy of a lifestyle intervention in patients with CKD to improve cardiorespiratory fitness and exercise capacity over 36 months, we conducted a randomized cl...

Background: Low cardiorespiratory fitness (V̇O2peak) is highly associated with chronic disease and mortality from all causes. Whilst exercise training is recommended in health guidelines to improve V̇O2peak, there is considerable inter-individual variability in the V̇O2peak response to the same dose of exercise. Understanding how genetic factors c...

Background Cardiorespiratory fitness and fatness (notably central obesity) are mediating factors of the metabolic syndrome (MetS) and consequent cardiovascular disease (CVD)/mortality risk. The fitness-fatness index (FFI) combines these factors and has been reported to be a better indicator of CVD and all-cause mortality risk, beyond the capacity o...

Objective To examine the changes in depression and anxiety symptoms among Brazilian adults over 10 months of the COVID-19 pandemic. Study design The present study used data from wave 1 (June/July, 2020) and wave 2 (December, 2020/January, 2021) of the Prospective Study About Mental and Physical Health (PAMPA) Cohort, a state-level, ambispective lo...

New findings: What is the central question of the study? What is the reliability of middle cerebral artery velocity cerebrovascular reactivity (CVR) when using traditional and novel outcomes, as measured by transcranial doppler? What is the main finding and its importance? Traditional CVR approaches presented acceptable reproducibility but should...

Aims: The aim of this study was to compare the effects of 5 years of supervised exercise training (ExComb), and the differential effects of subgroups of high-intensity interval training (HIIT) and moderate-intensity continuous training (MICT), with control on the cardiovascular risk profile in older adults. Methods and results: Older adults aged 7...

Understanding the contribution of the autonomic nervous system to cerebral blood flow (CBF) control is challenging, and interpretations are unclear. The identification of calcium channels and adrenoreceptors within cerebral vessels has led to common misconceptions that the function of these receptors and actions mirror those of the peripheral vascu...

Background Personal activity intelligence (PAI) is a single physical activity metric based upon heart rate responses to physical activity. Maintaining 100 PAI/week is associated with a 25% risk reduction in cardiovascular disease mortality and 50 PAI/week provides 60% of the benefits. The effect of utilising this metric within a cardiac population...

Blood flow restriction (BFR) with low-load resistance exercise (RE) is often used as a surrogate to traditional high-load RE to stimulate muscular adaptations, such as hypertrophy and strength. However, it is not clear whether such adaptations are achieved through similar cellular and molecular processes. We compared changes in muscle function, mor...

Visceral adipose tissue (VAT) is a key target of interventions for obesity-related diseases. Dual-energy x-ray absorptiometry (DXA) can estimate VAT, however its accuracy to measure longitudinal change in VAT compared to gold-standard techniques such as magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), has not been studied in adults. This study aimed to determine...

Introduction: Innovative strategies are needed to enable people with type 2 diabetes (T2D) to self-manage physical activity (PA). Personal Activity Intelligence (PAI) is a new metric that uses the heart rate response to PA to inform the user as to whether they are doing enough PA to reduce the risk of premature mortality. The PAI score reflects PA...

This study assessed cardio‐respiratory fitness (CRF), and 24‐hour sleep, sedentary behaviour (SB) and physical activity (PA) in Australian truck drivers. Participants (n=37 men) attended clinic sessions for an exercise test to exhaustion to establish CRF, and wore an accelerometer (ActigraphGT3X+) to estimate sleep, SB, and PA. Relative to normativ...

We aimed to examine the agreement between submaximal cardiopulmonary exercise testing (CPET) measures and peak oxygen consumption (VO2peak) in adults with epilepsy. Data from a randomized controlled trial with adults with epilepsy (N = 21) were analyzed. VO2peak was assessed using indirect calorimetry during a treadmill graded maximal CPET. Oxygen...

Background Menopause and its associated decline in oestrogen is linked to chronic conditions like cardiovascular disease and osteoporosis, which may be difficult to disentangle from the effects of ageing. Further, post-menopausal women are at increased risk of cerebrovascular disease, linked to declines in cerebral blood flow (CBF) and cerebrovascu...

Introduction Loss of skeletal muscle mass is a well-recognised complication of cirrhosis. Bedside methods to assess skeletal muscle mass including anthropometrics and bioelectrical impedance analysis (BIA) are negatively impacted by fluid overload in advanced cirrhosis and thus there is a need to identify alternatives. There is a paucity of data on...

From 2016 to 2040 the number of people with dementia in the United Kingdom is expected to increase by 57%, while 70% percent of it is due to a higher life expectancy. Thus, we analyzed the overall and age-stratified effect of physical activity on risk of dementia in participants with mild cognitive impairment (MCI) of the English Longitudinal Study...

Background: We address two aims; Aim 1 (Fitness Review) compare the effect of higher cardiorespiratory fitness (CRF) (e.g. endurance athletes) with lower CRF (e.g. sedentary adults) on cerebrovascular outcomes, including middle cerebral artery velocity (MCAv) as assessed by Transcranial Doppler (TCD) or Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI). Aim 2 (Exe...

Davids, CJ, Raastad, T, James, L, Gajanand, T, Smith, E, Connick, M, McGorm, H, Keating, S, Coombes, JS, Peake, JM, and Roberts, LA. Similar morphological and functional training adaptations occur between continuous and intermittent blood flow restriction. J Strength Cond Res XX(X): 000-000, 2021-The aim of the study was to compare skeletal muscle...

Background Cardiorespiratory fitness and fatness (notably central obesity) are mediating factors of the metabolic syndrome (MetS), and consequent cardiovascular disease (CVD)/mortality risk. The fitness-fatness index (FFI) combines these factors and has been reported to be a better indicator of CVD and all-cause mortality risk, beyond the capacity...

New findings: What is the topic of this review? We have conducted a systematic review and meta-analysis on the current evidence for the effect of heat therapy on blood pressure and vascular function. What advances does it highlight? We found that heat therapy reduced mean arterial, systolic and diastolic blood pressure. We also observed that heat...

Endothelial function, assessed using brachial artery flow-mediated dilation (FMD), predicts future cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk. This study established age- and sex-specific reference intervals for brachial artery FMD in healthy individuals and examined the relation with CVD risk factors. In a retrospective study design, we pooled brachial art...

The aim of this study was to investigate short- and long-term compensatory effects on dietary intake following high intensity interval training (HIIT) compared with usual care moderate intensity continuous training (MICT) during and following a cardiac rehabilitation program. This study investigates secondary outcomes of a clinical trial. Ninety-th...

Rapid excess weight gain and metabolic complications contribute to poor outcomes following liver transplant care. Providing specialist lifestyle intervention with equitable access is a challenge for posttransplant service delivery. Methods: This study investigated the feasibility of a 12-wk telehealth delivered lifestyle intervention for liver tr...

Introduction Impaired physical fitness is prevalent in people with chronic kidney disease (CKD), associating with an increased risk of mortality, falls and hospitalization. A plethora of physical fitness outcomes have been reported in randomized trials. This study aimed to assess the scope and consistency of physical fitness outcomes and outcome me...

We explore the association between gender differences in physical inactivity and dementia in low and lower-middle-income countries (LLMIC). Data were extracted from the Repository of the Global Health Observatory and the United Nations Development Program with 2016 as reference year. Sample was composed using countries with a Human Development Inde...

Implementation of social distancing reduced the incidence of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) cases. Nevertheless, this strategy has other undesirable effects such as physical inactivity and psychological distress, which are associated with cognitive impairment. We aimed to examine whether physical activity during social distancing restrictions could...

Objectives: We aimed to compare the prevalence of depression and anxiety symptoms before and during the pandemic and identify factors associated with aggravated mental health symptoms. Study design: Retrospective cohort study. Methods: We identified the proportion of normal, mild, moderate, and severe symptoms of depression and anxiety before and d...

Sarcopenia and frailty are associated with poorer outcomes in potential liver transplant (LT) recipients. We examined the reliability and feasibility of dietitians assessing sarcopenia and frailty. Seventy‐five adults referred for LT underwent assessments of muscle mass (abdominal CTs), physical function (handgrip strength; HGS, short physical perf...

Objective: Assess the variability and differences in oxidative stress, antioxidant, and inflammatory biomarkers in people with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2D) and healthy controls. Methods:: Ten men and women diagnosed with T2D and ten healthy matched controls (CON) were recruited. Participants had venous blood taken at six different time points on...

Dementia is a leading cause of morbidity and mortality worldwide. Physical activity (PA) appears as an alternative approach to reduce the burden of this disease especially among older adults. We aimed to identify the effect of changes in PA status among older adults on risk of dementia. We analyzed data from wave 1 (2002‐2003) to wave 8 (2016‐2018)...

Background: Dementia is the second leading cause of death in the United Kingdom, affecting 7.1% of older adults. One in five dementia cases in Europe can be attributable to physical inactivity. We examined the association between physical activity at age 50 or older and risk of dementia over 15 years. Methods: The English Longitudinal Study of A...

Objective: To evaluate the effect of five years of supervised exercise training compared with recommendations for physical activity on mortality in older adults (70-77 years). Design: Randomised controlled trial. Setting: General population of older adults in Trondheim, Norway. Participants: 1567 of 6966 individuals born between 1936 and 194...

Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis is characterized by the degeneration of upper and lower motor neurons, yet an increasing number of studies in both mouse models and patients with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis suggest that altered metabolic homeostasis is also a feature of disease. Pre-clinical and clinical studies have shown that modulation of energy...

Purpose of review: This review sought to evaluate the role of exercise in patients with obesity and comorbid hypertension, with a focus on contemporary literature (since January 2015). Recent findings: No reviews have included patients classified with both obesity and hypertension and there is a paucity of randomised controlled trials examining...

Importance: High-intensity interval training (HIIT) is recognized as a potent stimulus for improving cardiorespiratory fitness (volume of oxygen consumption [VO2] peak) in patients with coronary artery disease (CAD). However, the feasibility, safety, and long-term effects of HIIT in this population are unclear. Objective: To compare HIIT with mo...

The analysis of computerised tomography (CT) images to provide body composition data has grown exponentially. Despite this, there remains limited published data defining the normal range of skeletal muscle area and adipose tissue area using CT. The aim of this study was to determine age- and sex-specific body composition values using CT at the leve...

Background Post-liver transplant metabolic syndrome (PTMS) is a significant independent risk factor for the development of cardiovascular disease. The impact of pre-transplant body composition on the risk of developing PTMS has not been evaluated and was the aim of this study. Methods Seventy-five consecutive adult patients listed for liver transp...

Chronic metabolic health diseases are increasing worldwide placing strain on healthcare systems and importantly, impacting individuals’ quality of life. It is well established that many chronic diseases are associated with inflammation and oxidative stress. Exercise is a known strategy to manage and treat inflammation in animals and humans. Underst...

Introduction: IL-22 may have a role in the alleviation of the metabolic syndrome (MetS) via protection of pancreatic beta and endothelial cells from oxidative and lipid-induced damage. We aimed to investigate the effects of moderate-intensity continuous training (MICT) and different volumes of high-intensity interval training (HIIT) on changes in...

We questioned whether the respiratory muscles of humans contribute to systemic oxidative stress following inspiratory flow resistive breathing, if the amount of oxidative stress is influenced by the level of resistive load, and whether the amount of oxidative stress is related to the degree of diaphragm fatigue incurred. Eight young and healthy par...

Purpose: Acute anterior uveitis (AAU) is a common intraocular inflammatory disease. AAU occurs in 30% to 50% of patients with ankylosing spondylitis (AS), and both conditions are strongly associated with human leukocyte antigen (HLA)-B27, implying a shared etiology. This study aims to apply genomewide association study (GWAS) to characterize the g...