Evidence base for exercise programs for older people still in the balance
Good balance and mobility are essential to help you perform most activities involved in every-day life, as well as many recreational pursuits. Keeping your balance is a complex task, involving the co-ordination between a person's muscles and sensors which detect balance and are part of the nervous system. In older people many factors such as reduced muscle strength, stiff joints, delayed reaction times and changes in the sensory system all add up to reduce a person's ability to keep in balance.
A previously published Cochrane review indicated that regular exercise helps older people improve their balance and reduces their risk of falling. After adding 62 new studies to the pool of data, researchers say that while some useful ideas are emerging, there is still a need for high quality evidence that can determine which types of exercise are the most effective. The results have just been published in the Cochrane Library.
By examining 94 studies that involved a total of 9917 participants, researchers identified a list of different types of exercises that had been tested to improve balance. "The information has helped to shed more light on the different approaches to exercise that have been undertaken in studies to date," says lead author Prof Tracey Howe, who works in the School of Health & Life Sciences at Glasgow Caledonian University and is a Director of Glasgow City of Science.
The exercises programs they identified included one or more of the following activities:
- exercise that targeted a person's walking, balance and co-ordination
- strengthening exercises
- three-dimensional exercises, including Tai Chi, dance and yoga
- general physical activity such as walking or cycling
- computerized balance training that uses visual feedback
- exercise involving vibrating platforms
The researchers found, however, that much of the evidence was of poor quality, and it was very difficult to combine the results from different pieces of work because of lack of consistency in the measurement instruments used to test balance. "If the research community identified a core group of balance outcomes that were used in all future studies, we would be in a much stronger position to combine individual studies and better understand of which type of exercise is the most effective to improve balance," says Howe.
Provided by
Wiley
-
Perception of health and balance has direct impact on walking activity, new study says
Dec 19, 2008 |
not rated yet |
0
-
Exercising to piano music appears to help reduce falls among older adults
Nov 22, 2010 |
not rated yet |
0
-
Stroke survivors improve balance with tai chi
Mar 23, 2009 |
not rated yet |
0
-
Strength training curbs hip, spinal bone loss in women with osteoporosis
Jul 13, 2011 |
not rated yet |
0
-
Dancing their falls away
Nov 07, 2011 |
not rated yet |
0
-
Motion perception revisited: High Phi effect challenges established motion perception assumptions
Apr 23, 2013 |
3 / 5 (2) |
2
-
Anything you can do I can do better: Neuromolecular foundations of the superiority illusion (Update)
Apr 02, 2013 |
4.5 / 5 (11) |
5
-
The visual system as economist: Neural resource allocation in visual adaptation
Mar 30, 2013 |
5 / 5 (2) |
9
-
Separate lives: Neuronal and organismal lifespans decoupled
Mar 27, 2013 |
4.9 / 5 (8) |
0
-
Sizing things up: The evolutionary neurobiology of scale invariance
Feb 28, 2013 |
4.8 / 5 (10) |
14
-
Classical and Quantum Mechanics via Lie algebras
Apr 15, 2011
- More from Physics Forums - Independent Research
More news stories
US health care: Does more spending yield better health?
(Medical Xpress)—Health care spending is much higher for older Americans than for younger adults and children, on average, and analysts have said that increasing spending leads to longer life expectancy.
Health
1 hour ago |
not rated yet |
0
Facing the chill wind of blood pressure
(Medical Xpress)—High blood pressure is something that has traditionally been a problem in Scotland, but might there be a link to our climate?
Health
1 hour ago |
not rated yet |
0
Alcohol sales fall due to ban on multi-buy promotions
(Medical Xpress)—A report published today shows a 2.6% decrease in the amount of alcohol sold per adult in Scotland in the year following the introduction of the Alcohol etc. (Scotland) Act in October 2011.
Health
1 hour ago |
not rated yet |
0
Study focuses on new mums' sleepiness and injury risk on the road
New mothers throughout Australia are needed to help QUT sleep researchers investigate whether the disrupted sleep experienced by mothers when caring for their new baby raises the risk of injury while driving.
Health
2 hours ago |
not rated yet |
0
Portland, Ore., rejecting water fluoridation
(AP)—The mayor of Portland, Ore., has conceded defeat in an effort to add fluoride to the city's drinking water.
Health
3 hours ago |
not rated yet |
0
Addiction to unhealthy foods could help explain the global obesity epidemic
Research presented today shows that high-fructose corn syrup can cause behavioural reactions in rats similar to those produced by drugs of abuse such as cocaine. These results, presented by addiction expert Francesco Leri, ...
Study shows low rate of late lumen loss with bioresorbable DESolve device
The DESolve bioresorbable coronary scaffold system achieves good efficacy and safety with low rates of late lumen loss and major coronary adverse events at six months, show first results from the pivotal DESolve Nx trial ...
Study finds COPD is over-diagnosed among uninsured patients
More than 40 percent of patients being treated for COPD at a federally funded clinic did not have the disease, researchers found after evaluating the patients with spirometry, the diagnostic "gold standard" for chronic obstructive ...
Registry questions superiority of bivalirudin over heparin
Results from a large observational study reported at EuroPCR 2013 today question whether bivalirudin is superior to heparin in the absence of GPIIb/IIIa blockade, showing similar 30-day mortality in patients with non-ST segment ...
New blood-thinner measures may cut medication errors
Blood thinners are the preferred treatment option to prevent heart attacks, blood clots and stroke, but they are not without risk, and not just because of their side effects. These high-risk drugs, known as anticoagulants, ...
Small increase in cancer risk following CT scans in childhood and adolescence
Study leader, Professor John Mathews from the University of Melbourne said this small increase in cancer risk must be weighed against the undoubted benefits from CT scans in diagnosing and monitoring disease.