Combined resistance and balance-jumping exercise reduces older women's injurious falls and fractures: 5-year follow-up study

Age Ageing. 2015 Sep;44(5):784-9. doi: 10.1093/ageing/afv064. Epub 2015 May 18.

Abstract

Background and objective: previously, a randomised controlled exercise intervention study (RCT) showed that combined resistance and balance-jumping training (COMB) improved physical functioning and bone strength. The purpose of this follow-up study was to assess whether this exercise intervention had long-lasting effects in reducing injurious falls and fractures.

Design: five-year health-care register-based follow-up study after a 1-year, four-arm RCT.

Setting: community-dwelling older women in Finland.

Subjects: one hundred and forty-five of the original 149 RCT participants; women aged 70-78 years at the beginning.

Methods: participants' health-care visits were collected from computerised patient register. An injurious fall was defined as an event in which the subject contacted the health-care professionals or was taken to a hospital, due to a fall. The rate of injured fallers was assessed by Cox proportional hazards model (hazard ratio, HR), and the rate of injurious falls and fractures by Poisson regression (risk ratio, RR).

Results: eighty-one injurious falls including 26 fractures occurred during the follow-up. The rate of injured fallers was 62% lower in COMB group compared with the controls (HR 0.38, 95% CI 0.17 to 0.85). In addition, COMB group had 51% less injurious falls (RR 0.49, 95% CI 0.25 to 0.98) and 74% less fractures (RR 0.26, 95% CI 0.07 to 0.97).

Conclusions: home-dwelling older women who participated in a 12-month intensive multi-component exercise training showed a reduced incidence for injurious falls during 5-year post-intervention period. Reduction in fractures was also evident. These long-term effects need to be confirmed in future studies.

Keywords: exercise; fractures; injurious falls; older adults.

Publication types

  • Randomized Controlled Trial
  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Accidental Falls / prevention & control*
  • Age Factors
  • Aged
  • Aging*
  • Female
  • Finland / epidemiology
  • Follow-Up Studies
  • Fractures, Bone / diagnosis
  • Fractures, Bone / epidemiology
  • Fractures, Bone / physiopathology
  • Fractures, Bone / prevention & control*
  • Geriatric Assessment
  • Humans
  • Incidence
  • Independent Living
  • Kaplan-Meier Estimate
  • Muscle Strength*
  • Odds Ratio
  • Postural Balance*
  • Proportional Hazards Models
  • Prospective Studies
  • Registries
  • Resistance Training*
  • Risk Factors
  • Time Factors
  • Treatment Outcome
  • Women's Health*