Effect of exercise intervention on elderly patients with sarcopenia: a meta-analysis

To investigate the effects of exercise on muscle mass and strength in elderly sarcopenia patients through a meta-analysis.

Randomized controlled trials (RCTs) on exercise interventions for elderly patients with sarcopenia were retrieved from the Web of Science, PubMed, Cochrane Library, ProQuest, EBSCOhost, Scopus, EMBASE, China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI), and Chinese Science and Technology Periodical Database (VIP) published between 2015 and 2025. The Cochrane Risk of Bias tool was used to assess the quality of studies, and the RevMan 5.3 software was applied for the meta-analysis. Subgroup analyses were performed to evaluate the effect of different exercise intervention protocols on the outcome measures.

A total of 15 studies involving 902 participants were included in this study, with 527 receiving exercise intervention. Meta-analysis results indicated that exercise intervention significantly improved skeletal muscle index (MD = 0.25, 95% CI: 0.13-0.39), knee extension strength (KES) (SMD = 0.64, 95% CI: 0.46-0.81), walking speed (SMD = 0.54, 95% CI: -0.10 to 1.18), TUG (MD = -1.38, 95% CI: -1.73 to -1.02), and handgrip strength (SMD = 0.52, 95% CI: 0.29 to 0.75). Subgroup analysis of the modality and frequency of exercise intervention for the measure of handgrip strength indicated that both RT and AT+RT increased handgrip strength in elderly sarcopenic patients without any significant between-group difference. Both exercise frequency of ≥ 3 times/week and < 3 times/week showed an improvement in handgrip strength.

Exercise interventions can increase muscle mass and strength in people suffering from sarcopenia and enhance their quality of life. Nonetheless, additional research is required to confirm these results and refine specific protocols for implementation.