The effectiveness of exercise interventions on Rate of Falls and Balance: a systematic review

• Autor(a) principal: Gomes, Margarida
• Data de Publicação: 2019
• Outros Autores: Loureiro, Vânia, Manzano, Sara
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Repositório Científico de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (Repositórios Cientìficos)
• Texto Completo: https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12207/6136
• topic: physical activity; fall; physical performance; multifactorial program

BACKGROUND: Falls are considered as the fourth leading cause of injury mortality and represent 23 % of deaths among adults over 65 years[1]. Multifactorial interventions have been classified with two or more individually tailored interventions to prevent falls[2], and deficits on balance and gait performance[3]. Indeed, preventing falls by improving proper balance exercise in older people has been a public health issue in several studies[4] and a predictor of falls occurrences[5]. OBJECTIVE: This article aimed to systematically review (SR) the effectiveness of multifactorial programs, with physical exercise, on balance and rate of falls in healthy older people. METHODS: The RS was undertaken following the principles of the PRISMA guidelines[6]. Studies were identified from four databases: PubMed, Cochrane, Web of Science, SCOPUS up to 2019, and limited to English, Portuguese and Spanish languages. The search strategy was conducted by using a keyword search of the following terms: (risk of fall* OR risk factor*) AND (physical activity OR physical endurance OR physical fitness OR physical activity level* OR physical performance*) AND (multifactorial*). Articles were excluded if they did not meet the inclusion criteria: (i) did not report fall-related outcomes or were reported only as abstracts (ii) were not RCTs; (iii) multifactorial programs with at least two risk factors in interventions; (iv) healthy community-dwelling men and/or women aged 60 years and older; (v) physical performance components; (vi) lack of a control group. Study quality was assessed using the Quality Assessment Tool for Quantitative Studies[7]. RESULTS: 6 articles meet the inclusion criteria. All articles present positive effect in balance and only one didn’t present positive effect in fall rates. We found recent evidence for the effectiveness of exercise interventions designed to diminish fall rates according multifactorial interventions in older people. Exercise intervention focused in balance parameters has positive and statistically significant effects. CONCLUSIONS: Multifactorial interventions may be a key factor in the prevention and management of physical performance and rate of falls. The results of this SR show that, exercise interventions in multifactorial programs seem to have positive effects on falls-related parameters. Future studies should be conducted to better understand the benefits of others physical parameters.