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Meta-Analysis
. 2025 Jun 6:13:1589512.
doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2025.1589512. eCollection 2025.

Effects of boxing interventions on physical fitness and health-related quality of life in older people with Parkinson's disease: a systematic review with meta-analysis

Jordan Hernandez-Martinez  1   2 , Izham Cid-Calfucura  3 , Edgar Vázquez-Carrasco  4   5   6 , Nicole Fritz-Silva  7 , Tomás Herrera-Valenzuela  3 , Braulio Henrique Magnani Branco  8 , José Zapata-Bastias  9 , Pablo Valdés-Badilla  9   10
Affiliations
Meta-Analysis

Effects of boxing interventions on physical fitness and health-related quality of life in older people with Parkinson's disease: a systematic review with meta-analysis

Jordan Hernandez-Martinez et al. Front Public Health. .

Abstract

Objective: This systematic review with meta-analysis aimed to evaluate the available body of published peer-reviewed studies on the effects of boxing (BOX) interventions on balance, cardiorespiratory fitness, motor function, and health-related quality of life (HRQoL) in older people with Parkinson's disease (PD).

Methods: A comprehensive search of the literature, including peer-reviewed randomized and non-randomized controlled trials, was conducted to December 2024 in the databases of PubMed, Medline, Psychology and Behavioral Sciences Collection (EBSCO), CINAHL Complete, Scopus, and Web of Science (core collection). A random-effects model was employed, and Hedge's g effect sizes (ES) were computed. The GRADE, RoB 2, ROBIN-1, TESTEX, and PRISMA tools evaluated the methodological quality and certainty of evidence. The protocol (code: CRD42024614097) was registered in PROSPERO.

Results: Eight studies were included, with 100 older people with PD, of which only three could be meta-analyzed. No significant effects were evident (p = 0.05), which were small to moderate effects of BOX on ABC-Scale (ES = -0.56; p = 0.13), Timed Up-And-Go (TUG; ES = 0.24; p = 0.34), TUG dual task (ES = 0.20; p = 0.41), 6-min walking test (ES = 2.16; p = 0.23), and PD Quality of Life Questionnaire (ES = -0.009; p = 0.98).

Conclusion: BOX interventions do not significantly improve balance, cardiorespiratory fitness, and health-related quality of life in older people with PD.

Keywords: aged; dopamine; neurodegenerative diseases; physical functional performance; postural balance.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Adapted with permission from “PRISMA 2020 flow diagram template for systematic reviews” by Page et al. (30), licensed under CC BY 4.0.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Risk of bias within studies. D1: randomization process; D2: deviations from the intended interventions; D3: missing outcome data; D4: measurement of the outcome; D5: selection of the reported result.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Risk of bias summary: review the authors’ judgments about each risk of a bias item in each included study.
Figure 4
Figure 4
Risk of bias within studies.
Figure 5
Figure 5
Risk of bias summary: review the authors’ judgments about each risk of a bias item in each included study.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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