Abstract
Frailty is an age-associated biological syndrome characterized by declines in multiple physiological domains, including balance, muscle mass and strength, flexibility, neuromuscular coordination and cardiovascular function. A quarter to a half of people over 85 years has frailty and are at significantly increased risk of falls, disability, care home admission and death. Although descriptive and systematic reviews have been written on the effects of balance training on balance performance in healthy older adults, none of these previous reviews analyze the effects of exercise interventions on balance in elderly with physical frailty. Thus, there is a need to define exercise prescription strategies to improve the functional capacity in elderly who are overall physically frail. This literature review will focus on exercise interventions that improved balance. In addition to these effects of training, the present review will identify other characteristics of the exercise interventions, such as the exercise intensity, and weekly frequency. The objective of this review is to present the evidence for the effectiveness of exercise interventions designed to improve balance in frail older adults.
