Simas V, et al. – This research strived to gauge the efficacy of water–based exercise (WBE) in preventing age–related bone deterioration in in postmenopausal women. The data brought to light the fact that WBE could exhibit benefits, in terms of maintaining or improving bone health in postmenopausal women but less benefit when compared to land–based exercise (LBE). An advanced research was necessitated to further explore the findings.

Methods

• The databases and the references of identified studies were examined.
• This study carried out critical narrative synthesis and meta-analyses.

Results

• Eleven studies, encompassing 629 participants, met all inclusion criteria.
• The enrollees were postmenopausal women.
• Eight studies compared WBE to a sedentary control group, and four studies had land-based exercise (LBE) participants as a comparison group.
• Marked differences were disclosed between WBE and control group in favor of WBE for changes in bone mineral density (BMD) at the lumbar spine (mean difference [MD] 0.03 g/cm²; 95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.01 to 0.05) and femoral neck (MD 0.04 g/cm²; 95% CI: 0.02 to 0.07).
• In addition, prominent variations were reported between WBE and LBE in favor of LBE for changes in lumbar spine BMD (MD -0.04 g/cm²; 95% CI: -0.06 to -0.02).
• Nevertheless, no significant difference was observed between WBE and LBE for changes in femoral neck BMD (MD -0.03 g/cm²; 95% CI: -0.08 to 0.01).