METHODOLOGICAL SHORTCOMINGS AND FUTURE DIRECTIONS IN RESEARCH ON BALANCE TRAINING FOR OLDER ADULTS: A SCOPING REVIEW

Abstract

Introduction

Although a lot of attention is paid to the lack of balance training research in older adults with different types of diagnoses, low methodological quality and incomplete reporting of individual studies still limit the transfer of knowledge between research and practice. These known methodological flaws are also considered barriers to developing guidelines or recommendations for balance training in older adults. Despite considerable efforts to improve the scientific quality of studies, such recommendations have not yet been formulated. The aim of this scoping review is therefore to analyze the literature dealing with balance training in older adults with different types of diagnoses and to identify and summarize gaps in the existing literature with the aim to suggest future research on this topic.

Methodology

The PRISMA Extension for Scoping Reviews standardized protocol was used as a methodological framework in the creation of this scoping review. The search was carried out through the Web of Science electronic database. Studies that evaluated the effect of balance training on balance in people over 60 years of age with different types of diagnoses were analyzed.

Results

A total of 2492 studies were reviewed, of which 26 studies met the eligibility criteria. The main identified deficiencies were insufficiently described health characteristics (11/26 studies), missing/insufficient description of the training protocol (22/26 studies), selection of tests not reflecting the trained type of balance (6/26 studies).

Conclusion

Among the identified shortcomings, the insufficiently described health status and training protocol can be considered the most important. For this reason, even with an excellently executed experiment, it is almost impossible for experts to apply the results of such studies in practice. Therefore, researchers should pay more attention to possible users of the acquired knowledge, which is more than desirable in the case of exercise programs for older adults.