Systematic Review on Postural Changes and Fall Risk in Older Adults

17 observational studies were included in a systematic review investigating the link between postural changes and fall risk in community-dwelling older adults. The review, authored by Viviane Lemos Silva Fernandes, searched four databases for English-language studies published in the ten years prior to April 2016. Most studies found a positive association between postural changes like thoracic hyperkyphosis and an increased risk for loss of balance and falls.

Use Cases

• Identify risk factors for falls in older adults based on postural changes described in the review.
• Inform the design of fall prevention interventions based on associations found between spinal curvature and instability.
• Guide future research on balance control by synthesizing evidence from 17 observational studies.

Strengths

• The review is based on a systematic search of 1,734 articles from four major databases.
• Study quality was assessed using the STROBE guidelines for observational studies.
• The final analysis includes 17 articles, with findings on specific postural changes like thoracic hyperkyphosis.

Limitations

• The underlying data (the 17 studies) are not directly provided; only the review's summary is available.
• The search was limited to studies published in English within a specific 10-year window, which may introduce language and recency bias.
• The description does not provide column-level details or sample data from the constituent studies.

Provenance

Source

paperswithcode

Collection Method

Systematic literature review of PubMed, Web of Science, SPORTDiscus, and CINAHL databases.

Time Range

Studies published in the 10 years prior to April 2016.