Evidence map›Paper›PMID 31908838›Full record

ReviewBMJ open sport & exercise medicine2019

Exercise for falls prevention in community-dwelling older adults: trial and participant characteristics, interventions and bias in clinical trials from a systematic review.

Christopher A C M Ng, Nicola Fairhall, Geraldine Wallbank, Anne Tiedemann, Zoe A Michaleff, Catherine Sherrington

Open access · goldAbstract readReview
PubMed Full text at PMC Publisher
In one paragraph

Review in BMJ open sport & exercise medicine, 2019. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 27 papers, 4 of them syntheses that pooled it.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
27citing papers in PubMed, 4 pooled it
12.5field-weighted citation impact, top 1% of its field
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

27 citing papers in PubMed, 4 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 59 citations in OpenAlex.

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4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

6 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.

Christopher A C M NgMedical School, University of Western Australia, Crawley, Western Australia, Australia.ORCID 0000-0002-4006-2869
Nicola FairhallInstitute for Musculoskeletal Health, The University of Sydney School of Public Health, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia.
Geraldine WallbankInstitute for Musculoskeletal Health, The University of Sydney School of Public Health, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia.
Anne TiedemannInstitute for Musculoskeletal Health, The University of Sydney School of Public Health, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia.
Zoe A MichaleffInstitute for Musculoskeletal Health, The University of Sydney School of Public Health, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia.
Catherine SherringtonInstitute for Musculoskeletal Health, The University of Sydney School of Public Health, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia.
The University of Sydney · AUBond University · AU

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

introductionThere is strong evidence that exercise prevents falls in community-dwelling older people. This review summarises trial and participant characteristics, intervention contents and study quality of 108 randomised trials evaluating exercise interventions for falls prevention in community-dwelling older adults.

methodsMEDLINE, EMBASE, CENTRAL and three other databases sourced randomised controlled trials of exercise as a single intervention to prevent falls in community-dwelling adults aged 60+ years to May 2018.

results108 trials with 146 intervention arms and 23 407 participants were included. Trials were undertaken in 25 countries, 90% of trials had predominantly female participants and 56% had elevated falls risk as an inclusion criterion. In 72% of trial interventions attendance rates exceeded 50% and/or 75% of participants attended 50% or more sessions. Characteristics of the trials within the three types of intervention programme that reduced falls were: (1) balance and functional training interventions lasting on average 25 weeks (IQR 16-52), 39% group based, 63% individually tailored; (2) Tai Chi interventions lasting on average 20 weeks (IQR 15-43), 71% group based, 7% tailored; (3) programmes with multiple types of exercise lasting on average 26 weeks (IQR 12-52), 54% group based, 75% tailored. Only 35% of trials had low risk of bias for allocation concealment, and 53% for attrition bias.

conclusionsThe characteristics of effective exercise interventions can guide clinicians and programme providers in developing optimal interventions based on current best evidence. Future trials should minimise likely sources of bias and comply with reporting guidelines.

Indexed as

evidence-basedexercisefallreviewsenior

Identifiers

PMID31908838
PMCPMC6936986
OpenAlexW2996565138

What OpenQuestion holds

Textmetadata
LicenceCC BY-NC
Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

None linked

Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.