Effect of exergaming on health-related quality of life in older adults: A systematic review.
Marysol Cacciata, Anna Stromberg, Jung-Ah Lee and 5 others
PMID 30861452WHAT IT FOUND
Exergaming did not consistently improve health-related quality of life in older adults.
Most trials found no clear benefit, and the positive results were short-term and tied to supervised center-based sessions with high adherence.
Key findings
01Several included trials found no statistically significant improvement in health-related quality of life compared with control.
02Some positive findings were limited to physical function and did not always persist.
03Supervised rehabilitation and outpatient exergaming had higher adherence than home-based exergaming.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for PTsWhat it means for OTsWhat it means for RNs
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What it does not show
The review included nine trials with 614 participants, but most trials were small pilot or feasibility studies and may be underpowered. The trials used different exergaming devices, control groups, settings, durations, and quality-of-life measures, so the results cannot be combined. Health-related quality of life was often a secondary outcome, so sample sizes may not have been adequate to detect differences in it. Blinding participants and staff was not feasible, and some studies had risk of detection bias or relied on self-report. Adherence varied widely, from 37% to 100%, and was lowest in home-based settings. Four studies did not report adverse events, so safety information is incomplete. Only English studies from selected databases were searched, and unpublished studies were not included, so relevant trials may be missing. The review did not evaluate exergaming intensity, which may affect health-related quality of life.
Declared interests
The authors declared that there is no conflict of interest.
The easy way to misread this
Do not conclude that exergaming improves health-related quality of life in older adults. The review found inconsistent results, and the evidence was not strong enough to support it as a routine intervention.