Effects of Exercise Programmes on Quality of Life in Osteoporotic and Osteopenic Postmenopausal Women: a Systematic Review and Meta-analysis

Objective: To examine the effect of exercise therapy on quality of life in postmenopausal women with osteoporosis or osteopenia.

Methods: We searched MEDLINE, CINAHL, PEDro, EMBASE and the Cochrane library from January 1966 to March 2007. Two reviewers independently selected all studies that met predetermined inclusion criteria. Randomized controlled trials that used the Short Form 36 of the Medical Outcome Study (SF-36) questionnaire or the Quality of Life Questionnaire of the European Foundation for Osteoporosis (QUALEFFO) as outcome measures were selected. The PEDro Scale was applied to rate the quality of each article. All studies had a quality score above 5/10. Meta-analysis was facilitated by RevMan 4.1.

Results: Four randomized controlled trials met the inclusion criteria, involving a total of 256 participants. Results revealed that the exercise groups showed significant improvements in the domains of physical function, pain, role physical and vitality (P<0.05). Furthermore, intervention with combined exercise programmes had better effects on physical function, pain and vitality domains than controls. Group exercise programmes also produced better results in these three domains. A short-duration exercise programme produced more improvement in physical function, role physical and vitality, whereas a long-duration exercise programme resulted in more improvement in physical function and pain domains.

Conclusions: This meta-analysis revealed better improvement in physical function, pain, role physical and vitality in the exercise groups. Combined exercise and group exercise programmes showed better outcomes in the physical function, pain and vitality domains, but different durations of exercise programme showed improvement in different domains.