Home-based exercise programmes improve physical fitness of healthy older adults: A PRISMA-compliant systematic review and meta-analysis with relevance for COVID-19

This systematic review and meta-analysis aimed to examine the effects of home-based exercise programmes on measures of physical-fitness in healthy older adults. Seventeen randomized-controlled trials were included with a total of 1,477 participants. Results indicated small effects of home-based training on muscle strength (between-study standardised-mean-difference [SMD]=0.30), muscle power (SMD=0.43),muscular endurance (SMD=0.28), and balance (SMD=0.28). We found no statistically significant effects for single-mode strength vs. multimodal training (e.g., combined balance, strength, and flexibility exercises) on measures of muscle strength and balance. Single-mode strength training had moderate effects on muscle strength (SMD=0.51) and balance (SMD=0.65) while multimodal training had no statistically significant effects on muscle strength and balance. Irrespective of the training type, >3 weekly sessions produced larger effects on muscle strength (SMD=0.45) and balance(SMD=0.37) compared with ≤3 weekly sessions (muscle strength: SMD=0.28; balance:SMD=0.24). For session-duration, only ≤30min per-session produced small effects on muscle strength (SMD=0.35) and balance (SMD=0.34). No statistically significant differences were observed between all independently-computed single-training factors. Home-based exercise appears effective to improve components of health- (i.e., muscle strength and muscular endurance) and skill-related (i.e., muscle power, balance) physical-fitness. Therefore, in times of restricted physical activity due to pandemics, home-based exercises constitute an alternative to counteract physical inactivity and preserve/improve the health and fitness of healthy older adults aged 65-to-83 years.