Efeitos do exercício físico na dor lombar em idosos da comunidade: uma revisão sistemática

Abstract

Objective: The purpose of the current systematic review is to synthesize the available evidence to investigate the effects of physical exercise on low back pain of elderly community residents. Methods: The electronic databases Medline, PEDro, Cochrane Library, SciELO and LILACS were searched (studies published from 2001 to 2011). Inclusion criteria: Clinical trial, Randomized and/or controlled trials were identified and subjects older than 60 years. The followings were excluded: subjects younger than 60 years, studies that presented only preliminary data or conducted with institutionalized or hospitalized elderly. Results: 61 studies were found in MEDLINE, 5 studies in the PEDro database, 7 in the Cochrane Library and 2 in Lilacs. No articles were found in Scielo database. After examining the titles and abstracts, 30 studies were selected for evaluation of the full text. Hand searching supplied another 1 potentially relevant study. Of these 31, 3 studies fulfilled all inclusion criteria in the review. There were differences of participant’s characteristics on baseline, types of intervention, intensity, duration and time of training and differences of instruments used to analyze results. The results of studies were contradictory. Conclusion: There is no conclusive evidence on which type of exercise is the most effective to reduce low back pain in older adults, and evidences are contradictory. But researches show that physical activity is associated with lower low back pain in old people, suggesting that physical exercise can reduce low back pain in the elderly. There is a lack of evidence on literature that investigates the effect of different types of exercise on low back pain in the elderly. These studies are necessary to improve prevention and therapeutic conducts.