THE ARISING · Longevity & Healthspan
Multicomponent Exercise Cuts Falls in Older Adults by About 20%
Multicomponent exercise programs, which combine several kinds of training, reduced falls by about one-fifth among older adults living at home, according to a pooled analysis published in the Journal of the American Medical Directors Association in 2026. The programs also cut serious fall injuries. Fractures were a different story.
The work is a systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials. It combined 38 studies, covering 33 groups of participants and 20,183 people in total. All lived in the community, and the average age in each study was over 65. The authors searched five major databases, from their start dates through October 2025.
Multicomponent exercise lowered the rate of falls, with an incidence rate ratio of 0.80 (95% confidence interval 0.71 to 0.90). A ratio of 0.80 means about 20% fewer falls than in comparison groups. The risk of having at least one fall was also lower, with a risk ratio of 0.88 (0.82 to 0.93).
The effect on injuries was larger. Injurious falls occurred at a rate ratio of 0.739 (0.627 to 0.871). Serious injurious falls, the most severe category, showed the most consistent reduction, at 0.741 (0.616 to 0.890), roughly a quarter fewer. Fracture outcomes showed no clear benefit.
Results varied substantially between cohorts, and certainty of the evidence was low for fall incidence and risk of falling but moderate for serious injurious falls. The authors write that differences in how programs were delivered, how much exercise people received and how falls were recorded should be considered when applying the pooled results in practice.
Next to watch: whether future trials can explain why results differed so widely between cohorts, and whether any exercise program can show a clear effect on fractures.