Exercise reduces falls in older people by 23%, and balance and functional exercise by 24%
Does exercise prevent falls?
The finding
All exercise against control: rate of falls ratio 0.77 (0.71–0.83), high-certainty evidence. Balance and functional exercise: 0.76 (0.70–0.81).
- Authors
- Sherrington C, Fairhall NJ, Wallbank GK, et al.
- Published
- Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews 1:CD012424 · 2019
- Evidence
- Read in the primary source; numbers checked.
- Source
- doi.org/10.1002/14651858.CD012424.pub2
How it was studied
Systematic review of 108 randomised trials: 23,407 people aged 60 and over in 25 countries (mean age 76, 77% women).
The numbers
Multiple types of exercise, usually balance and functional plus resistance: 0.66 (0.50–0.88), moderate certainty. Tai Chi: 0.81 (0.67–0.99), low certainty. For resistance training alone, dance or walking the effect was uncertain. Fall-related fractures: RR 0.73 (0.56–0.95), low certainty.
What it does not show
Trials in people over 60, mostly women. It says nothing direct about training in midlife preventing falls decades later.
What Longstanding does with it
This is one of the few randomised results in the whole battery’s evidence base. The app’s balance cue is a few minutes of single-leg practice a day; it does not claim to prevent falls.