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Record W4413030617 · doi:10.1101/2025.08.01.25332828

Influence of reactive balance training program characteristics on reactive balance control and fall risk: a systematic review and meta-analysis

2025· review· en· W4413030617 on OpenAlexaff
Hadas Nachmani, Laura Langer, Augustine Joshua Devasahayam, Avril Mansfield

Bibliographic record

VenuemedRxiv · 2025
Typereview
Languageen
FieldHealth Professions
TopicBalance, Gait, and Falls Prevention
Canadian institutionsSunnybrook Health Science CentreUniversity of TorontoToronto Rehabilitation InstituteUniversity Health Network
Fundersnot available
KeywordsBalance (ability)Meta-analysisFall preventionMedicinePhysical medicine and rehabilitationEnvironmental healthHuman factors and ergonomicsPoison controlInternal medicine

Abstract

fetched live from OpenAlex

ABSTRACT Introduction : Diverse Reactive Balance Training (RBT) programs have been developed to address age-related deterioration in reactive balance control and increased fall risk. Despite the demonstrated effectiveness of those programs, there is significant variability in intervention characteristics (e.g., type of perturbations, total volume and intensity of training) and in study findings. It is likely that intervention effectiveness depends on features of the intervention; however, little is known about the optimal way to deliver RBT. The purpose of this systematic review and meta-analysis is to determine the optimal intervention characteristics for RBT for improving reactive balance control and preventing falls in daily life. Methods : We searched MEDLINE ALL (July 2023), Embase (July 2023), Physiotherapy Evidence Database (August 2023) and Cochrane (July 2023) for randomized controlled trials of RBT that reported on a measures of reactive balance control and/or falls in daily life. Results were screened by two reviewers independently to determine eligibility. The following details were extracted: study population; intervention characteristics (number of sessions in total, duration, and frequency of sessions; type, intensity and number of perturbations; description of the control intervention; and program duration), number of participants in each group; reactive balance outcomes pre- and post-intervention, and number of falls in daily life post-intervention. Risk of bias (RoB) and certainty of evidence (GRADE) were assessed. Meta-regressions were performed to explore the influence of different study components on reactive balance control and falls in daily life. Results: After screening 7,677 records, 32 studies were included; 25 reported a reactive balance outcome, and 19 reported falls in daily life. RoB of reactive balance control revealed main concerns arising from selection of reported results (20/25). RoB of falls in daily life had high or some concerns in the measurements of the outcome (12/19) and selection of reported results (15/19). RBT programs that included manual perturbations were associated with reduced fall rates compared to the reference (waist pull perturbations; relative risk: 0.45; 95% confidence interval: [0.22, 0.91], p=0.042). There were no other significant relationships between any other training parameters and falls in daily life or reactive balance control. Quality of evidence (GRADE) was low for both reactive balance control and falls in daily life. Discussion: While there was some evidence for superiority of manual perturbations over other perturbation types for fall prevention, we were unable make any definitive conclusions regarding optimal training RBT characteristics. High variability in training protocols between studies and under-reporting of intervention characteristics prevented us from making a meaningful analysis of the existing studies. Future RBT studies should provide more detailed descriptions of training protocols and include head-to-head comparisons of different training parameters (e.g., perturbation types or intensities). RBT studies should also include outcomes for both reactive balance control and falls in daily life.

Fetched live from OpenAlex and de-inverted. Abstracts are not stored in this database: the inverted indexes are 8.6 GB of the frame’s 9.3 GB of text, and the host has 13 GB free.

How this classification was reachedexpand

Full frame machine prediction

Teacher imitation

Not 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.

metaresearch head score (Codex)0.019
metaresearch head score (Gemma)0.044
Version: metacan-v3-hybrid-931329e0061cValidation status: machine_predicted_unvalidated
Candidate categoriesnone
Consensus categoriesnone
DomainCandidate signal: none · Consensus signal: none
Study designCandidate signal: Meta-analysis · Consensus signal: none
GenreCandidate signal: Review · Consensus signal: Review
Teacher disagreement score0.022
Threshold uncertainty score0.099

Distilled classifier scores by category (both heads)

CategoryCodexGemma
Metaresearch0.0190.044
Meta-epidemiology (narrow)0.0030.002
Meta-epidemiology (broad)0.0220.039
Bibliometrics0.0070.008
Science and technology studies0.0010.001
Scholarly communication0.0040.002
Open science0.0030.002
Research integrity0.0030.002
Insufficient payload (model declined to judge)0.0040.000

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.

Opus teacher head0.062
GPT teacher head0.407
Teacher spread0.345 · how far apart the two teachers sit on this one work
Validation statusscore_only:v0-immature-baseline · verbatim from the scoring run: score_only means the number may rank works, and no category label ships from it

Classification

machine, unvalidated

Machine predicted; a candidate call from one source (direct Gemma or distilled Codex), not a consensus.

The models applied no category: nothing in the taxonomy fit this work.
Study designMeta-analysis
Domainnot available
GenreReview

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".

Quick stats

Citations1
Published2025
Admission routes1
Has abstractyes

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