Evidence map›Paper›PMID 39972017›Full record

Trial reportScientific reports2025

Exercise reduces the risk of falls in women with polypharmacy: secondary analysis of a randomized controlled trial.

Anna-Erika Tamminen, Risto Honkanen, Heli Koivumaa-Honkanen, Joonas Sirola, Reijo Sund, Heikki Kröger, Toni Rikkonen

Registry-linked trialAbstract readRandomized Controlled Trial
In one paragraph

Trial report in Scientific reports, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. It is linked to trial NCT02665169 (Randomized Fall Prevention Trial For Aging Females by Providing Supervised Exercises and Free Use of Municipal Recreation Facilities.), which is not on this map. Not yet cited in PubMed.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
0citing papers in PubMed
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

NCT02665169 nacompletednot on this map

Randomized Fall Prevention Trial For Aging Females by Providing Supervised Exercises and Free Use of Municipal Recreation Facilities.

TypeinterventionalSponsorKuopio University HospitalRan2016 to 2019Enrolled914ConditionsAccidental Falls, Health Behavior, AgingArmsSupervised physical exercise, Health counselling
3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

0 citing papers in PubMed.

No citing paper in PubMed yet.

4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

7 authors.

Anna-Erika TamminenKuopio Musculoskeletal Research Unit (KMRU), University of Eastern Finland, Kuopio, Finland. anntam@uef.fi.
Risto HonkanenKuopio Musculoskeletal Research Unit (KMRU), University of Eastern Finland, Kuopio, Finland.
Heli Koivumaa-HonkanenInstitute of Clinical Medicine (Psychiatry), University of Eastern Finland, Kuopio, Finland.
Joonas SirolaKuopio Musculoskeletal Research Unit (KMRU), University of Eastern Finland, Kuopio, Finland.
Reijo SundKuopio Musculoskeletal Research Unit (KMRU), University of Eastern Finland, Kuopio, Finland.
Heikki KrögerKuopio Musculoskeletal Research Unit (KMRU), University of Eastern Finland, Kuopio, Finland.
Toni RikkonenKuopio Musculoskeletal Research Unit (KMRU), University of Eastern Finland, Kuopio, Finland.

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

Polypharmacy has previously been found to increase and exercise interventions to reduce the risk of falls and fall-related injuries. In this study, women who had four or more regular medications benefitted the most from the exercise intervention and had the lowest fall risk compared to the reference group. Fall injuries among older people cause significant health problems with high societal costs. Previously, some exercise interventions have been found to reduce the number of falls and related injuries. We studied how different levels of medication use affect the outcome of an exercise intervention in terms of preventing falls. This exercise RCT involved 914 women born in 1932-1945 and randomly assigned to the intervention (n = 457) and control (n = 457) groups. Both groups participated in functional tests three times during the study. Baseline self-reported prescription drug use was trichotomized: 0-1, 2-3, and ≥ 4 drugs/day (i.e. polypharmacy group). We used Poisson regression for follow-up fall risk and Kaplan-Meier survival analysis for fractures. During follow-up, 1380 falls were reported, 739 (53.6%) resulting in an injury and pain and 63 (4.6%) in a fracture. Women with polypharmacy in the intervention group had the lowest fall risk (IRR 0.713, 95% CI 0.586-0.866, p = 0.001) compared to the reference group that used 0-1 medications and did not receive the intervention. Overall, the number of medications associated with the fall incidence was only seen in the intervention group. However, the number of medications was not associated with fractures in either of the groups. Weaker functional test results were associated with polypharmacy in the control group. The most prominent decrease in fall risk with exercise intervention was seen among women with polypharmacy. Targeting these women might enhance fall prevention efficacy among the aging population.Trial Registration: The study has been registered in ClinicalTrials.gov. Trial registration number NCT02665169. Register date 27/01/2016.

Indexed as

Accidental FallsExerciseExercise TherapyPolypharmacyAgedAged, 80 and overFemaleFractures, BoneHumansMiddle AgedRisk Factors

Identifiers

PMID39972017
PMCPMC11839976

What Socratic holds

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Registered trials

Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the Socratic graph.