Meta-Analysis of the Effects of Physical Exercise on Elderly Fitness

Abstract

Background: Increasing age can cause cardiorespiratory fitness conditions to decrease so that which can affect daily activities in the elderly. Purpose: To determine the effect of physical exercise on fitness in the elderly. Subject and Method: This study is a systematic review and meta-analysis conducted using PRISMA flow diagrams. Article searches through the journal database include: PubMed, Science Direct, Google Scholar, and PEDro by selecting articles published in 2013-2022. The keywords used are(“Fitness” OR “Wellness”) AND (“Physical Activity” OR “Exercise”) AND (“Elderly” OR “Older Adults”) AND “randomized controlled trial”. The inclusion criteria are full articles paper articles with the Randomized Controlled Trial (RCT) research method, the relationship size used with the Mean SD, the intervention given as physical exercise, the research subjects were elderly > 60 years old, and experienced a decrease in fitness level. Articles that met the requirements were analyzed using the Revman 5.3 application. Results: Meta-analysis of 5 articles shows that physical exercise can increase fitness in the elderly by 0.24 times compared to other interventions or no intervention. (SMD 0.24; 95% CI= -0.01 to 0.48; p=0.19). Conclusion: Physical exercise has a weak effect on the fitness of the elderly.