Effects of Exergaming on Frailty: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.

Only five studies with 391 older adults were available, so the review cannot identify the best exercise intensity or mix of exercise types. The certainty of evidence was very low and the overall risk of bias was high: allocation concealment was unclear, some studies used per-protocol analysis, two studies were judged high risk for missing outcome data, and frailty was assessed by patient-reported measures that could be influenced by knowing the intervention. Participants varied widely, including community-dwelling people, day care centre and nursing home residents, and people with dementia, and two studies enrolled only women, so the findings may not apply to all frail older adults. Controls differed: some received usual activities and others received comparable physical exercises, so exergaming cannot be shown to be better than conventional exercise. One trial added exergaming to conventional physical treatments and therapies, so the effect of the game alone cannot be separated from the other treatment.

The authors declared no conflicts of interest.

Do not conclude that exergaming reverses frailty better than exercise. The pooled frailty-score difference was not significant, the phenotype results were not significant, and the certainty was very low. Positive frailty-status findings came from comparisons with usual care or treatment, not from superiority over active exercise.