Flexibility Training Interventions and Functional Outcomes in Aging: A Systematic Review
Bibliographic record
Abstract
As indicated in a recent systematic review relating to Canada's Physical Activity Guidelines for Older Adults, exercise interventions (comprised of aerobic and strength training) in older adults can maintain or improve functional abilities. Many older adult programs place an emphasis on flexibility, however, there currently does not exist a synthesis of the literature to support this recommendation. PURPOSE: To systematically review the literature assessing the effect of flexibility specific training interventions on functional outcomes in older adults. METHODS: An electronic search strategy was developed, where all reasonable expressions of the concepts aging, flexibility, functional outcomes, and training interventions were considered. A comprehensive search of Pubmed, Embase, Cinahl, Scopus, and SportDiscus databases was conducted and produced 4037 citations. Two reviewers independently evaluated the articles for relevance using standard systematic review methodology leading to further consideration of 24 articles. Training interventions for which flexibility was an independent component of the intervention or was utilized as a control group were considered for final review. Interventions targeting specific chronic conditions (aside from arthritis and osteoarthritis) were excluded from review. RESULTS: For 18 of the studies, flexibility was the independent intervention, with 6 being control groups. Community dwelling populations were investigated in 21 studies and 3 studies describing assisted-living or frail populations. Functional-only outcomes were reported for 2 studies; 7 studies reported only flexibility outcomes; and 15 studies reported combined flexibility and functional outcomes. Eleven studies used whole-body flexibility protocols. Body part specific protocols included: knee (3); ankle (1); hip (2); calf (1); spine (1); hamstrings (2); and lower body (3). CONCLUSIONS: A preliminary synthesis of flexibility training interventions in older adults suggests that the range of motion can be increased in various joints and various functional outcomes can be improved. However, due to the wide range of intervention protocols, body parts studied, and functional measurements, conclusive recommendations regarding flexibility training for older adults are premature.
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How this classification was reachedexpand
Full frame machine prediction
Teacher imitationNot calibrated prevalence, not ground truth. Human validation pending. The Gemma side is a direct model label for every work in the frame, read from the title-only record. The Codex side is a classifier learned from the 10,348 direct Codex labels and calibrated to design-weighted sample rates; fields without enough sample support carry no Codex call. Candidate is the union of the two sides; consensus is their intersection. These outputs are machine_predicted_unvalidated and are not human labels.
Distilled classifier scores by category (both heads)
| Category | Codex | Gemma |
|---|---|---|
| Metaresearch | 0.010 | 0.040 |
| Meta-epidemiology (narrow) | 0.002 | 0.001 |
| Meta-epidemiology (broad) | 0.009 | 0.008 |
| Bibliometrics | 0.009 | 0.009 |
| Science and technology studies | 0.001 | 0.001 |
| Scholarly communication | 0.003 | 0.003 |
| Open science | 0.002 | 0.002 |
| Research integrity | 0.002 | 0.001 |
| Insufficient payload (model declined to judge) | 0.005 | 0.000 |
Machine scores (provisional)
The two teacher heads of the student model, read on this work. A score orders the frame for review; it never asserts a category, and the validation status ships verbatim with every row.
Baseline scores from an immature model (maturity gate not passed, 7 training rounds). Scores rank; they never assert a category.
score_only:v0-immature-baseline · verbatim from the scoring run: score_only means the number may rank works, and no category label ships from itClassification
machine, unvalidatedMachine predicted; a candidate call from one source (direct Gemma or distilled Codex), not a consensus.
How this classification was reached, model by model and score by score, is at the end of the page under "How this classification was reached".