"Association of Long-term Exercise Training with Risk of Falls, Fractures, Hospitalizations, and Mortality in Older Adults: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis."
Speaking as someone in the relevant age category (69), I find this a little bit funny. Aside from the fact that it strikes me as overthinking the subject, not to mention that I'm always suspect of meta-analyses, we have some real-world anecdotal evidence here in my NORC (Naturally Occurring Retirement Community, i.e. a place mostly inhabited by old farts).
I'm in a small group which gets together weekly to play ping-pong (winter) and pickle ball (summer). Maybe 10 people total. I know this doesn't rise to the level of 2 to 3 times a week mentioned in the study, but people around here tend to be more generally active anyway.
We jokingly call ourselves badass because we've had: one broken hip, one broken wrist, loosened and broken teeth, and a handful of cases of road rash. When we started the pickle ball last spring we soon created a rule of No Running, because that was almost always when people fell down. (Of course this might've been a consequence of inappropriate footwear, i.e. hiking boots.)
I'm with you, exercise is a Good Thing. It has many other benefits besides fall prevention.
P.S. You might be surprised to learn that the most severe injury, the broken hip, happened during ping-pong, on a carpeted floor. To be fair, the subject was over 90 and, to her credit, she was diving for the ball. Sadly, her daughter won't let her play with us anymore.
BTW it's interesting to read the Wikipedia entry for the National Association of Scholars. They're painted from the get-go as a radical right wing influence group. Out of curiosity, I looked at the entry for John Ioannides. It's not as blatant in painting him as a conspiracy theorist, relying mostly on less direct implications that he spread COVID-19 misinformation. There's a whole section on his COVID-19 activity which makes for interesting reading. I've come to view Wikipedia as the left-wing dogma police ;)
Nov 6, 2023·edited Nov 6, 2023Liked by Tucker Goodrich
My favorite recent example of Wikipedia craziness is the Edit/Talk page for the Westminster Declaration to Dismantle the Censorship-Industrial Complex. The editors were debating whether to delete the whole page or not, because reasons. Hilariously ironic.
This review included 116 studies, involving 25,160 participants; nine new studies since the 2019 Cochrane Review. Exercise reduces the rate of falls by 23% (pooled rate ratio (RaR) 0.77, 95% confidence interval (CI) 0.71 to 0.83, 64 studies, high certainty evidence). Subgroup analysis showed variation in effects of different types of exercise (p < 0.01). Rate of falls compared with control is reduced by 24% from balance and functional exercises (RaR 0.76, 95% CI 0.70 to 0.82, 39 studies, high certainty evidence), 28% from programs involving multiple types of exercise (commonly balance and functional exercises plus resistance exercises, RaR 0.72, 95% CI 0.56 to 0.93, 15 studies, moderate certainty evidence) and 23% from Tai Chi (RaR 0.77, 95% CI 0.61 to 0.97, 9 studies, moderate certainty evidence). The effects of programs that primarily involve resistance training, dance or walking remain uncertain. Interventions with a total weekly dose of 3+ h that included balance and functional exercises were particularly effective with a 42% reduction in rate of falls compared to control (Incidence Rate Ratio (IRR) 0.58, 95% CI 0.45 to 0.76). Subgroup analyses showed no evidence of a difference in the effect on falls on the basis of participant age over 75 years, risk of falls as a trial inclusion criterion, individual versus group exercise, or whether a health professional delivered the intervention.
Speaking as someone in the relevant age category (69), I find this a little bit funny. Aside from the fact that it strikes me as overthinking the subject, not to mention that I'm always suspect of meta-analyses, we have some real-world anecdotal evidence here in my NORC (Naturally Occurring Retirement Community, i.e. a place mostly inhabited by old farts).
I'm in a small group which gets together weekly to play ping-pong (winter) and pickle ball (summer). Maybe 10 people total. I know this doesn't rise to the level of 2 to 3 times a week mentioned in the study, but people around here tend to be more generally active anyway.
We jokingly call ourselves badass because we've had: one broken hip, one broken wrist, loosened and broken teeth, and a handful of cases of road rash. When we started the pickle ball last spring we soon created a rule of No Running, because that was almost always when people fell down. (Of course this might've been a consequence of inappropriate footwear, i.e. hiking boots.)
I'm with you, exercise is a Good Thing. It has many other benefits besides fall prevention.
P.S. You might be surprised to learn that the most severe injury, the broken hip, happened during ping-pong, on a carpeted floor. To be fair, the subject was over 90 and, to her credit, she was diving for the ball. Sadly, her daughter won't let her play with us anymore.
That whole Shifting Sands series is a great find. There have been three reports in the series so far; all accessible at https://www.nas.org/report-series/shifting-sands-keeping-count-of-government-science
The Covid report is Report III.
BTW it's interesting to read the Wikipedia entry for the National Association of Scholars. They're painted from the get-go as a radical right wing influence group. Out of curiosity, I looked at the entry for John Ioannides. It's not as blatant in painting him as a conspiracy theorist, relying mostly on less direct implications that he spread COVID-19 misinformation. There's a whole section on his COVID-19 activity which makes for interesting reading. I've come to view Wikipedia as the left-wing dogma police ;)
At this point, people who want rigorous science are the enemies of the scientific establishment.
And yes, for Wikipedia. Read the entry on Joseph Ladapo, MD. The tone is, "He thinks the Earth is a globe! Burn him!"
Or read Larry Sangler...
My favorite recent example of Wikipedia craziness is the Edit/Talk page for the Westminster Declaration to Dismantle the Censorship-Industrial Complex. The editors were debating whether to delete the whole page or not, because reasons. Hilariously ironic.
https://ijbnpa.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12966-020-01041-3
Results
This review included 116 studies, involving 25,160 participants; nine new studies since the 2019 Cochrane Review. Exercise reduces the rate of falls by 23% (pooled rate ratio (RaR) 0.77, 95% confidence interval (CI) 0.71 to 0.83, 64 studies, high certainty evidence). Subgroup analysis showed variation in effects of different types of exercise (p < 0.01). Rate of falls compared with control is reduced by 24% from balance and functional exercises (RaR 0.76, 95% CI 0.70 to 0.82, 39 studies, high certainty evidence), 28% from programs involving multiple types of exercise (commonly balance and functional exercises plus resistance exercises, RaR 0.72, 95% CI 0.56 to 0.93, 15 studies, moderate certainty evidence) and 23% from Tai Chi (RaR 0.77, 95% CI 0.61 to 0.97, 9 studies, moderate certainty evidence). The effects of programs that primarily involve resistance training, dance or walking remain uncertain. Interventions with a total weekly dose of 3+ h that included balance and functional exercises were particularly effective with a 42% reduction in rate of falls compared to control (Incidence Rate Ratio (IRR) 0.58, 95% CI 0.45 to 0.76). Subgroup analyses showed no evidence of a difference in the effect on falls on the basis of participant age over 75 years, risk of falls as a trial inclusion criterion, individual versus group exercise, or whether a health professional delivered the intervention.