Effectiveness of traditional Chinese exercises in the prevention and treatment of postmenopausal osteoporosis: A systematic review and meta-analysis

Assess the effectiveness of traditional Chinese exercises in treating postmenopausal osteoporosis (PMOP) for evidence-based treatment support. Design by March 2024, we conducted a thorough search across 8 databases for eligible randomized controlled trials (RCTs). Meta-analysis was conducted utilizing Stata 17.0 (StataCorp LLC, College Station) and interventions were ranked through a network meta-analysis approach. We analyzed 15 RCTs including 1018 patients with PMOP. Compared with the control group, the lumbar spine L2 to L4 bone mineral density (BMD) (mean difference [MD] = 0.11 g/cm2, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.05-0.17), clinical effectiveness (risk ratio = 1.26, 95% CI: 1.03-1.53), and Visual Analog Scale score (MD = -0.78 points, 95% CI: -1.48 to -0.09) showed a notable improvement in the traditional Chinese exercise group. The network meta-analysis results for the surface under the cumulative ranking curve (SUCRA) probability ranking showed that Ba Duanjin combined with conventional drugs (SUCRA: 88.8%) had the most significant improvement in lumbar spine L2 to L4 BMD, while Wu Qinxi combined with conventional drugs (SUCRA: 87.8%) had the best effect on the reduction in Visual Analog Scale scores. Traditional Chinese exercises improve L2 to L4 BMD, pain, bone turnover, and balance in PMOP. More extensive, high-quality RCTs are needed for validation.