Does long-term recreational gymnastics prevent injurious falls in older women? A prospective 20-year follow-up
Background: Exercise interventions focused on balance and strength training have been shown to be effective for falls prevention. The aim of this 20-year register-based follow-up was to examine whether long-term participation in recreational female gymnastics is associated with a lower risk of medically-attended injurious falls.Methods : Health care register data of 187 women (103 recreational gymnasts and 84 sedentary controls) from the original cohort of 243 women were assessed. The mean age (sd) at baseline was 62.8 (5.4) years and the mean follow-up time was 19.4 (2.7) years (range from 5.6 to 21.0 years). Injurious falls were scrutinized from medical records. An injurious fall was defined as an event in which falling was mentioned as a reason for making contact with the health-care professionals. Negative binomial regression was used to estimate incidence rate ratios (IRR) for injurious falls, and Cox-regression models for calculating hazard ratios (HR) for injured fallers with the control group as reference.Results Recreational gymnasts had about 30% less injurious falls compared to controls, the mean IRR (95% CI) being 0.71 (0.51 to 0.96). Regarding injured fallers, the HR was 0.73 (0.52 to 1.02) favoring the recreational gymnasts. There were no statistically significant between-group differences for fractures.Conclusion s: Long-term recreational gymnastics appears to reduce the risk of injurious falls in old age.
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Does long-term recreational gymnastics prevent injurious falls in older women? A prospective 20-year follow-up
On 01 Feb, 2020
On 15 Jan, 2020
On 14 Jan, 2020
On 13 Jan, 2020
On 10 Jan, 2020
On 09 Jan, 2020
On 09 Jan, 2020
Posted 18 Dec, 2019
On 08 Jan, 2020
Received 06 Jan, 2020
On 02 Jan, 2020
Received 02 Jan, 2020
Invitations sent on 27 Dec, 2019
On 27 Dec, 2019
On 15 Dec, 2019
On 14 Dec, 2019
On 14 Dec, 2019
On 25 Nov, 2019
Received 21 Nov, 2019
Received 14 Nov, 2019
On 07 Nov, 2019
On 23 Oct, 2019
Invitations sent on 22 Oct, 2019
On 20 Oct, 2019
On 14 Oct, 2019
On 13 Oct, 2019
On 11 Oct, 2019
Background: Exercise interventions focused on balance and strength training have been shown to be effective for falls prevention. The aim of this 20-year register-based follow-up was to examine whether long-term participation in recreational female gymnastics is associated with a lower risk of medically-attended injurious falls.Methods : Health care register data of 187 women (103 recreational gymnasts and 84 sedentary controls) from the original cohort of 243 women were assessed. The mean age (sd) at baseline was 62.8 (5.4) years and the mean follow-up time was 19.4 (2.7) years (range from 5.6 to 21.0 years). Injurious falls were scrutinized from medical records. An injurious fall was defined as an event in which falling was mentioned as a reason for making contact with the health-care professionals. Negative binomial regression was used to estimate incidence rate ratios (IRR) for injurious falls, and Cox-regression models for calculating hazard ratios (HR) for injured fallers with the control group as reference.Results Recreational gymnasts had about 30% less injurious falls compared to controls, the mean IRR (95% CI) being 0.71 (0.51 to 0.96). Regarding injured fallers, the HR was 0.73 (0.52 to 1.02) favoring the recreational gymnasts. There were no statistically significant between-group differences for fractures.Conclusion s: Long-term recreational gymnastics appears to reduce the risk of injurious falls in old age.
Figure 1
Figure 2