Efeitos da suplementação de cafeína no salto vertical de atletas: uma revisão sistemática

Abstract

Caffeine is the most widely consumed psychoactive substance in the world and is becoming increasingly known for its ergogenic properties. With this, there is an increase in demand for athletes seeking to improve physical performance. Given that jumping ability is important in a variety of sports, it is of great scientific and practical relevance to know the impact of caffeine intake on this physical ability as a means of promoting performance. The aim of this systematic review was to gather randomized controlled trials (RCT) in order to investigate whether caffeine has an ergogenic effect on the performance of athletes in vertical jump tests. We included RCTs that tested the acute effect of caffeine in athletes over 18 years of age in specific jumping tests and that had a control group receiving placebo or no intervention. Searches were conducted in the Pubmed, Scopus, and SportDiscus databases, conducted on November 21, 2022 with an update on April 02, 2023. The risk of bias was assessed using the RoB 2.0 tool. A narrative synthesis of the results of the included studies was performed, structured around population, intervention, and outcomes, considering the risk of bias of the studies in all analyses performed. The searches identified 22 records that met the eligibility criteria, involving 320 participants. The majority of studies (54.6%) were classified with low risk of bias for the outcomes of interest. No studies were classified as high risk of bias. Significant improvement in vertical jump height was observed with caffeine supplementation in 18 studies, using doses of 3 to 6 mg/kg (capsules and drinks) and absolute doses of 300 mg (chewing gum). Nine studies (40.9%) reported the presence of adverse effects, at doses ranging from 2.5 to 6 mg/kg, but none were serious. Because the studies did not present separate results for the sexes, it was not possible to identify whether there are differences in the effects of caffeine intake between men and women. In conclusion, caffeine has been shown to provide significant ergogenic effects, resulting in increased vertical jump height (on average, an increase of 4.7%). However, more evidence is needed to determine whether these performance enhancing effects of caffeine would transfer to the context of matches or competitions.