Review: exercise programmes prevent falls in elderly people
Do exercise programmes prevent falls in elderly people? What are the most important components of effective exercise interventions?
Included studies evaluated exercise interventions for fall prevention in elderly people. Studies in which the control group received exercise or the intervention group received additional non-exercise interventions for >25% of the time were excluded. Outcome was the pooled incidence rate ratio (IRR) of falls, which allows for multiple falls per person.
Medline, CINAHL, EMBASE/Excerpta Medica, PubMed, Physiotherapy Evidence Database, SafetyLit, Prevention of Falls Network Europe, and Cochrane Bone, Joint, and Muscle Trauma Group’s trial register (May 2007); and references were searched for published randomised controlled trials (RCTs). 44 RCTs (49 comparisons, n = 9603) met the selection criteria. …