PURPOSE: Nowadays, high altitude mountaineering is increasingly popular among different populations with a dream to challenge high-altitude exercises facilitated by the convenience of global traveling. In view of this, the authors performed a meta-analysis in the hope of finding the effects of high-altitude mountaineering on cognitive function in mountaineers prior to and after the climbing.
METHODS: After a thorough electronic literature search and selection, eight studies were included in this meta-analysis, and test cycle ranged from 8 to140 days. The eight variables included in this meta-analysis were: trail-making test part B (TMB), finger tapping test--left (FTL), finger tapping test--right (FTR), digit span test forward (DSF), digit span test backward (DSB), wechsler memory scale visual (WMSV), aphasia screening test--visual motor errors(AST-vis), aphasia screening test--verbal items (AST-ver). The effect sizes and Forest Plots of these eight variables were generated.
RESULTS: Five variables (trail-making test part B (TMB), ES = 0.39; digit span test forward (DSF), ES = 0.57; finger tapping test--right (FTR), ES =0.50; finger tapping test--left (FTL), ES =0.16; wechsler memory scale visual (WMSV), ES =0.63; ) out of eight were significantly improved after high-altitude mountaineering, while ES values of digit span test backward (DSB), aphasia screening test--verbal items (AST-ver) and aphasia screening test--visual motor errors(AST-vis) did not show significant improvement after the mountaineering.
CONCLUSIONS: Our findings have some limitations arising from methodological issues inherent in the meta-analysis and we could not explain the high heterogeneity between studies. Despite such limitations, the current study has the strength of being the first meta-analysis trying to specify cognitive function of mountaineers compared with before and after high-altitude mountaineering. High-altitude mountaineering, as a short-term plateau exercise, has no significant negative impact on the cognitive function of climbers. Future research is needed for a long period of high-altitude mountaineering.