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

Abstract

Muscle architectural parameters play a crucial role in the rate of force development, strength, and sports performance. On the other hand, deteriorated muscle architectural parameters are associated with injuries, sarcopenia, mortality, falls, and fragility. With the development of technology, exergames have emerged as a complementary tool for physical therapy programs. The PRISMA 2020 statement was followed during the systematic review and meta-analysis. CENTRAL, CINAHL, PROQUEST, PubMed, and OpenGrey databases were searched last time on 22 September 2021. In total, five controlled trials were included in the systematic review. Twelve weeks of virtual dance exercise (Dance Central game for Xbox 360®) showed a medium effect on the improvement of hamstrings (g = 0.55, 95% CI (−0.03, 1.14), I2 = 0%) and the quadriceps femoris muscle cross-sectional area (g = 0.58, 95% CI (0.1, 1.00), I2 = 0%) in community-dwelling older women. Additionally, a four-week virtual balance-training program (the ProKin System) led to significant increments in the cross-sectional areas of individual paraspinal muscles (14.55–46.81%). However, previously investigated exergame programs did not show any medium or large effects on the architectural parameters of the medial gastrocnemius muscle in community-dwelling older women. Distinct exergame programs can be used as a complementary therapy for different prevention and rehabilitation programs.

The Effects of Resistance Training on Architecture and Volume of the Upper Extremity Muscles: A Systematic Review of Randomised Controlled Trials and Meta-Analyses

“…Regarding the effect size calculations of the RCTs, initially, none of the RCTs reported the required SDs of the mean changes from baseline for exercise and control groups. The difficulties associated with conducting a meta-analysis without this variable are well described in the literature [61][62][63]. Therefore, this systematic review strongly suggests that future RCTs should share their raw data, or mean changes from baseline and SDs of the mean changes from baseline, with their publications for more comparable future studies and meta-analyses.…”

“…A further limitation of our review is the inclusion of only English language articles, which may have led to the omittance of some data in the analysis. Similar to previous relevant meta-analytic studies that included both genders in the meta-analyses [62,63,98], this systematic review did not address the question of the influence of sex for a differential response to training in the meta-analyses, which adds a limitation to the outcomes provided. More RCTs may have led to stronger conclusions in this systematic review.…”

“…The standard deviations of the mean changes from baseline is defined as a common missing outcome data [61] and difficulties for running a meta-analysis without missing SDs explained by previous systematic reviews [62,63]. For calculating missing SDs, a formula was defined as [64,65]:…”

“…However, the first step could not be applied due to the lack of information in the included studies. As a second step, corresponding authors of the included studies were contacted to request their data -sets or the mean and SDchanges from baseline values, as previously recommended [61][62][63]. Thirdly, if the corresponding authors did not share their data with this systematic review, and the SDbaseline and SDfinal values were known, the SDchange value was calculated by assigning a value of 0.7 to the r in the formula [64,65], to provide a conservative estimate [66] as undertaken by previous systematic reviews [67][68][69][70].…”

Development of an Ergonomic Writing Assistive Device for Finger Pain Reduction in the Elderly

“…The writing activity of literacy education can have a positive effect on cognitive function, depression, and social network in the elderly [3,4]. However, as a consequence of aging, the body loses muscle strength and grip strength as muscle mass decreases [5,6], and pain in muscles and joints increases along with the presence of musculoskeletal diseases [7], making writing more difficult. In an experiment comparing young adults and the elderly, the elderly took longer to write [8].…”