The effects of exergames on muscle strength: A systematic review and meta‐analysis

Abstract

This systematic review and meta‐analysis examined studies on the chronic effects of exergames on muscle strength in humans. PubMed, Scopus, CENTRAL, Web of Science, SciELO, Biblioteca Virtual em Saúde, and Google Scholar were searched, and manual searches of the reference lists of included studies and hand‐searches on Physiotherapy Evidence Database and ResearchGate were conducted from inception to August 10, 2020. Randomized and non‐randomized exergame intervention studies with or without a non‐exercise group and/or a “usual care intervention group” (any other intervention that did not incorporate exergames), which evaluated muscle strength through direct measurements, were included. Forty‐seven and 25 studies were included in the qualitative review and meta‐analysis, respectively. The between‐groups meta‐analyses showed no significant differences between exergames and non‐exercise control groups for handgrip strength in heathy/unhealthy middle‐aged/older adults or knee extension maximum voluntary isometric contraction (MVIC) in healthy older adults. However, exergames provided a greater increase in handgrip strength, knee flexion MVIC, and elbow extension MVIC, but not knee extension MVIC or elbow flexion MVIC, in individuals with different health statuses when compared to usual care interventions. Also, there was a greater increase in handgrip strength in children with hemiplegic cerebral palsy favouring usual care plus exergames compared to usual care interventions. These results suggest that exergames may improve upper and lower limb muscle strength in individuals with different heath statuses compared to usual care interventions, but not muscle strength in middle age/older adults after accounting for random error. Also, exergames appear to be a useful tool for improving handgrip strength in children with hemiplegic cerebral palsy when added to usual care. However, as the exergame interventions were applied in different populations and there currently are many different approaches to perform exergames, future randomized controlled trials with high methodological quality and large sample sizes are needed to provide more compelling evidence in favour of a specific exergame protocol, or to elucidate exergame protocol design principles that appear to strongly influence outcomes.

The efficacy of exergaming in patients with knee osteoarthritis: A randomized controlled clinical trial

“…The present study is the first randomized controlled trial investigating the effects of exergaming on the muscle strength in patients with knee OA. The effects of exergaming on muscle strength in individuals with different health statuses were examined (Viana et al., 2021) but were not examined in patients with knee OA. In a review it was declared that Exergaming may improve upper and lower limb muscle strength in individuals with different heath statuses compared to usual care interventions, but not muscle strength in middle age/older adults after accounting for random error (Lin et al., 2020).…”

“…The lack of difference between the two groups may be due to this. In a meta analysis, it is emphasized that in exergaming programs muscle strength cannot be increased unless resistance exercises are focused on (Viana et al., 2021). And also, poor adherence is recognized as a universal problem in all types of eHealth interventions in older people especially when users have limited experience of using such applications (Carter et al., 2018).…”

An Exergame Solution for Personalized Multicomponent Training in Older Adults

“…Besides being widely available, leveraging autonomous use, and providing performance monitoring and individual adaptation capabilities [27,28], exergames can be used as an alternative to conventional training [29]. Exergames showed promising results to improve motor and cognitive functions in older adults [30][31][32][33], reduce the risk of falling [34], improve quality of life and enjoyment [30], improve balance and mobility [35], improve strength [36], and minimize urinary incontinence [37].…”

The Effects of Exergames on Muscle Architecture: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

“…Due to its motivating and interactive features, it has been stated that exergames might increase commitment to exercise [46][47][48][49]. Exergames, which mimic cycling, dancing, running, walking, playing a sport modality, and resistance training, have become commercially available [50][51][52][53][54][55][56]. Nowadays, exergames have been used in various rehabilitation programs for cerebral palsy, Parkinson's disease, stroke, obesity, or sarcopenia [57].…”

“…Numerous systematic reviews have focused on the effects of exergames on several outcomes, including anxiety level [53], balance [58][59][60][61], cardiac rehabilitation [62,63], childhood obesity [64,65], cognition [66][67][68][69][70][71], depression [70,72,73], exercise behaviour [74], motor skills [75][76][77], muscle strength [54], musculoskeletal pain [78], physical activity [32,[79][80][81], postural control [82,83], psychological effects [84], quality of life [85], respiratory conditions [78], social effects [86], and walking capacity [87].…”