Effectiveness of muscle strengthening and description of protocols for preventing falls in the elderly: a systematic review

Background

Falls are a geriatric syndrome that is considered a significant public healthproblem in terms of morbidity and mortality because they lead to a declinein functional capacity and an impaired quality of life in the elderly. Lowerlimb muscle strengthening seems to be an effective intervention forpreventing falls; however, there is no consensus regarding the best methodfor increasing lower limb muscle strength.

Objectives

To analyze the effectiveness of lower limb muscle strengthening and toinvestigate and describe the protocols used for preventing falls in elderlysubjects.

Method

We performed a systematic review of randomized and controlled clinical trialspublished between 2002 and 2012 in the databases PubMed, EMBASE, Scopus, Webof Science, and PEDro that cited some type of lower limb musclestrengthening protocol and that evaluated the incidence of falls as theprimary outcome exclusively in elderly subjects. Twelve studies met theinclusion criteria. Qualitative analysis was performed by independentreviewers applying the PEDro scale.

Results

The data obtained from the selected studies showed lower fall rates in theintervention groups compared to controls. Six studies described the lowerlimb muscle strengthening protocol in detail. High methodological qualitywas found in 6 studies (PEDro score ≥7/10 points).

Conclusions

The methodological quality of the studies in this area appears to leavelittle doubt regarding the effectiveness of lower limb strengtheningexercises for preventing falls in elderly subjects, however theinterventions in these studies were poorly reported.