Exercise intervention reduces the risk of falling in the elderly for many medications

The intervention of exercises addressed to older women successfully reduced falls, especially among people from polyfarmacy, shows a new study from the University of Eastern Finland and Kuopio University Hospital. The results were published in.

Scientists also found that polypharmament was associated with worse results in functional tests measuring physical fitness. Polypharma was defined as regular use of four or more drugs.

Our findings suggest that in order to increase the prevention of falling in the elderly, efforts to increase physical activity should be targeted especially at people using many drugs. “

Anna-Erika Tamminen, researcher, Kuopio Musculoszeletal Research Unit, University of Eastern Finland

According to Toni Rikkonen research director, the effectiveness of exercise intervention was, as expected, largely dependent on the initial level of fitness: “people with the poorest physical fitness initially benefited.”

Researchers conducted a secondary analysis of data prevention of Kuopio. Randomized controlled study included 914 women, and the median age was 76.5 years at the beginning of the study. Half of the women were randomly assigned to the exercise intervention group, and half to the control group. All participants underwent fitness tests at the beginning of the study and again one and two years later. The use of drugs was assessed using the starting questionnaire, and the participants divided into six groups based on the number of drugs used. Falls were monitored for about two years through two -week SMS queries sent to participants.

The intervention of the exercises included exercises sessions with a guide twice a week for the first six months, with Tai Chi one day and peripheral training on the other. Over the next six months, participants had free access to recreational sports facilities in the city.

During the observation, 1380 falls were reported, of which 739 caused injury and pain, and 63 in a fracture. The lowest risk of falling took place among women with polyfarmaches that participated in exercise intervention. Their risk was 29% lower than in the control group, using zero to one medicine and not participating in the intervention.

Previous studies were associated with polypharma with an increased risk of falling; However, in this study, polyfarmatation did not affect the number of declines in the control group. In addition, no relationship was observed between the number of drugs used and the number of fractures. The results of the efficiency test were the best among people who used zero to one drug in both control and intervention groups, and the poorest among people using many drugs during observation.