Systematic review of the statistical scope used in studies based on skeletal muscle autophagy and exercise

Skeletal muscle reaction to exercise is an essential are of research due to its ongoing prevalence in disease research and general health. It is well documented that under exercise conditions, biogenesis and autophagy increase. One main component of this pathway are lysosomes, the essential cellular clearance machine. Statistical analyses used to analyze these data have been sustained over the years. The objective of this systematic review is to compare and contrast the different methods used for analyzing data in molecular exercise physiology. Upon investigating the research papers the majority of the papers used either a t-test or an ANOVA as their primary statistical analyses, used 41% and 64% of the time, respectively. All other statistical tests were used a maximum of 9% of the time. Another trend that was evident was the increased utilization of post hoc tests in the more recent papers compared to earlier papers. This could provide interesting evidence into the credibility of the results reported and provide more insight into the research in molecular exercise physiology.