Effects of Exercise on Patients Important Outcomes in Older People With Sarcopenia: An Umbrella Review of Meta-Analyses of Randomized Controlled Trials
Open accessAbstract
Background: Many clinical practice guidelines strongly recommend exercise as an intervention for patients with sarcopenia. However, the significance of exercise on patient-important outcomes in older adults with sarcopenia is inconsistent when considering available minimal important differences. To synthesize current systematic review and meta-analyses evidence on the efficacy of exercise on patient-important outcomes in the treatment of sarcopenia in older adults. Methods: We searched MEDLINE, EMBASE, Cochrane Library (Cochrane database of systematic review, CDSR) via OvidSP and Web of science until April 2021 and reference lists. Two independent investigators performed abstracted and title screening, assessed the full text and quality of evidence. This umbrella review included systematic reviews and meta-analyses of randomized controlled trials (RCTs). Eligible reviews aim to evaluate the effect of exercise on patient-important sarcopenic outcomes (muscle or physical function, mortality, and quality of life) in treating sarcopenia in older people. We used the minimally important differences (MIDs) of these outcomes to assess if the effects of exercise matter to patients. Results: This umbrella review provided a broad overview of the existing evidence and evaluated the systematic reviews' methodological quality and evidence for all these associations. In older patients with sarcopenia, moderate- to high-quality evidence showed that exercise intervention probably increases walking speed and improved physical performance (measured by TUG test); exercise may increase the muscle strength (grip strength, keen extension strength); but the effect size for grip strength probably too small to achieve patients important changes. Evidence for older people with sarcopenic obesity is limited, and we found the consistent effect of exercise interventions on grip strength and usual walking speed. Conclusion: Exercise has a positive and important effect on physical performance for older adults with sarcopenia, which supports leaving the current recommendations unchanged. New systematic reviews to summarize the effect of exercise on the quality of life are warranted to fill the current evidence gap.
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Our team previously conducted an umbrella review of systematic reviews that found the quality of existing systematic reviews was low and did not report on quality of life or all-cause mortality.
“Moreover, our team previously conducted an umbrella review of systematic reviews trying to summarize the evidence for exercise as a treatment for sarcopenia and found that the quality of existing systematic reviews was low and, crucially, did not report on quality of life or all‐cause mortality. 27”
From Exercise for sarcopenia in older people: A systematic review and network meta‐analysis (2023) · cites this paper as [27]
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Exercise for sarcopenia in older people: A systematic review and network meta‐analysis
Shen, Y., Shi, Q., Nong, K., Li, S., Yue, J., Huang, J., Dong, B., Beauchamp, M., & Hao, Q. (2023) · Journal of Cachexia, Sarcopenia and Muscle · doi:10.1002/jcsm.13225 · Cited by 464 · see citing works
Self-citationWang, H., Huang, W. Y., & Zhao, Y. (2022) · International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health · doi:10.3390/ijerph19138212 · Cited by 99 · see citing works
- Authors
- Shen, Y., Liu, D., Li, S., He, Y., Tan, F., Sun, X., Li, D., Xia, X., & Hao, Q.
- Affiliations
- Sichuan University (CN)
- Heze Medical College (CN)
- Corresponding author
- Hao, Qiukui
- Venue
- Frontiers in Medicine
- Publisher
- Frontiers Media SA
- Published
- 2022-02-03
- Volume
- 9
- Pages
- 811746-811746
- ISSN
- 2296-858X (ISSN-L)
- PMC
- PMC8850637
- OpenAlex
- W4210428369
- Cited by
- 23
- References
- 41
- Citations by year
- 2026: 3 · 2025: 8 · 2024: 2 · 2023: 6 · 2022: 4
- FWCI
- 0.69
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- gold
- doi.org
- Licence
- Locations
- Frontiers in Medicine (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion, cc-by-sa)
- Topics
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Physiology › Nutrition and Health in Aging
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Geriatrics and Gerontology › Frailty in Older Adults
- Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Molecular Biology › Muscle Physiology and Disorders
- Keywords
- sarcopenia, exercise intervention, older adults, patient-relevant outcomes, minimally important difference, physical performance, walking speed, grip strength, muscle strength, sarcopenic obesity, mortality, quality of life
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