Health Research After 40
Explore peer-reviewed health research relevant to people over 40. Each entry summarises what was studied, how the study was designed, what researchers found and important limitations.
How to use this page: A single study rarely settles a health question. Randomised controlled trials, systematic reviews and meta-analyses are useful in different ways, and findings should be considered alongside the wider body of evidence and professional medical advice.
Frailty-targeted cardiovascular rehabilitation and management in older adults with cardiovascular disease and frailty: a systematic review and meta-analysis.
- Participants
- 1,716 participants across 16 studies
- What was tested
- Frailty-targeted cardiovascular rehabilitation and management interventions, including multicomponent rehabilitation/management approaches intended to improve physical function and frailty-related outcomes.
- Compared with
- Comparator conditions varied across the included randomized and non-randomized intervention studies; the review pooled outcomes only when sufficiently comparable.
- Main finding
- The review found favourable but uncertain effects on selected functional outcomes, including adjusted Short Physical Performance Battery scores, six-minute walk distance, frailty burden, lower-limb strength, and reduced SPPB decline. It found no clear benefit for all-cause mortality, and hospitalization and quality-of-life outcomes could not be pooled consistently.
- Limitations
- The authors rated the certainty of evidence as very low. The evidence base was limited by risk of bias, heterogeneity, imprecision, and small numbers of studies contributing to several pooled outcomes. Safety, implementation and economic outcomes were inconsistently or not reported, so clinically meaningful benefit has not been established.
- Funding / conflicts
- Funding and author conflict-of-interest details were not stated in the accessible abstract sources checked. The full publisher article should be checked before any live import if CalderGold requires complete author-level funding and conflict declarations.
- Journal
- Ageing Research Reviews
- DOI
- 10.1016/j.arr.2026.103383
Intravenous lidocaine for probable nociplastic chronic non-specific low back pain
- Participants
- 84 adults
- What was tested
- Intravenous lidocaine once weekly for four weeks, with background multimodal pain management.
- Compared with
- Saline placebo infusions with the same background multimodal pain management.
- Main finding
- Intravenous lidocaine did not provide additional pain reduction beyond placebo in this trial.
- Limitations
- The study focused on people with probable nociplastic chronic non-specific low back pain and therefore does not answer whether lidocaine might have a role in other pain conditions.
- Funding / conflicts
- Academic clinical research team; see the original paper for complete funding and conflict disclosures.
- Journal
- Pain Medicine
- DOI
- 10.1093/pm/pnag093
Multifactorial and multiple component interventions for preventing falls in older people living in the community.
- Participants
- 48,919 older people living in the community across 110 randomized studies.
- What was tested
- Multifactorial fall-prevention programmes tailored to an individual's assessed risk factors, and multiple-component programmes that provided the same combination of fall-prevention components to participants.
- Compared with
- Usual care or attention control, exercise alone, or falls-prevention advice/education, depending on the included comparison.
- Main finding
- Multifactorial programmes may slightly reduce the rate of falls and recurrent falls compared with usual care, but offer little or no additional benefit over falls advice/education and have uncertain effects compared with exercise. Multiple-component programmes generally showed little or no additional benefit for fall rate across several comparisons, although some comparisons suggested a reduced risk of falling.
- Limitations
- Certainty was limited for many comparisons by risk of bias and statistical heterogeneity. Several outcomes and comparisons remained uncertain, so the results do not support assuming that more complex programmes are always better than simpler exercise or falls-education approaches.
- Funding / conflicts
- Funding reported by Cochrane: NIHR Exeter Biomedical Research Centre, Dennis and Mireille Gillings Foundation, Bateman Family Charitable Trust, and an NIHR School for Primary Care Research post-doctoral fellowship. The accessible Cochrane summary did not provide the full author conflict-of-interest declarations; check the full review before any live import if author-level declarations are required.
- Journal
- Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews
- DOI
- 10.1002/14651858.CD012221.pub3
Bone marrow concentrate intradiscal injection for chronic discogenic low back pain
- Participants
- 63 patients
- What was tested
- A single intradiscal bone marrow concentrate injection.
- Compared with
- A sham procedure.
- Main finding
- There were no significant differences between bone marrow concentrate and sham for the trial's main pain-success outcome at 3, 6 or 12 months. The authors concluded that the injection was equivalent to sham in this trial.
- Limitations
- The authors noted important limitations, including lack of detailed cell-quality analysis, which limits how confidently the findings can be applied to all bone marrow concentrate treatments.
- Funding / conflicts
- The paper should be checked for full funding disclosures before drawing conclusions about independence.
- Journal
- Interventional Pain Medicine
- DOI
- 10.1016/j.inpm.2025.100611
Efficacy of cognitive functional therapy for pain intensity and disability in patients with non-specific chronic low back pain
- Participants
- 152 adults
- What was tested
- Six individual cognitive functional therapy sessions over six weeks, alongside a self-management education booklet.
- Compared with
- Six individual sham sessions using neutral talking plus detuned photobiomodulation, alongside the same education booklet.
- Main finding
- Cognitive functional therapy produced greater reductions in pain intensity and disability than the sham intervention at six weeks, and the differences remained at three- and six-month follow-up.
- Limitations
- This was a single trial in people with non-specific chronic low back pain. Results should be interpreted alongside the wider evidence base rather than as proof that the approach will work for everyone.
- Funding / conflicts
- One author reported occasionally receiving lecture fees for teaching multidimensional biopsychosocial approaches in physical therapy; the other authors declared no conflicts of interest.
- Journal
- British Journal of Sports Medicine
- DOI
- 10.1136/bjsports-2024-109012
Allogenic bone marrow-derived mesenchymal stromal cell therapy for chronic low back pain: RESPINE study
- Participants
- Multicentre trial
- What was tested
- A single intradiscal injection of 20 million allogeneic bone marrow-derived mesenchymal stromal cells.
- Compared with
- A sham injection procedure.
- Main finding
- The study tested whether intradiscal mesenchymal stromal cells improved pain, disability and MRI measures compared with sham placebo, with outcomes assessed through 24 months.
- Limitations
- This was a specialised intervention for selected patients with chronic low back pain and should not be generalised to ordinary non-specific back pain. The full paper should be read for the detailed responder and structural results.
- Funding / conflicts
- See the original paper for full funding and conflict-of-interest disclosures.
- Journal
- Annals of the Rheumatic Diseases
- DOI
- 10.1136/ard-2024-225771
Effects of osteopathic manipulative treatment associated with transcranial direct current stimulation in chronic low back pain
- Participants
- 72 participants
- What was tested
- Osteopathic manipulative treatment with active transcranial direct current stimulation.
- Compared with
- Sham stimulation plus osteopathic treatment, and a sham stimulation plus sham osteopathic-treatment group.
- Main finding
- Pain decreased in all groups. Adding active transcranial stimulation to osteopathic treatment did not provide a clinically significant improvement over osteopathic treatment alone.
- Limitations
- The study was relatively small and follow-up was short. Disability improved across groups without a clear group-specific effect.
- Funding / conflicts
- The authors declared no potential conflicts of interest.
- Journal
- Clinical Rehabilitation
- DOI
- 10.1177/02692155241274718
Reduction of chronic primary low back pain by spinal manipulative therapy
- Participants
- Adults with chronic primary low back pain
- What was tested
- A course of spinal manipulative therapy.
- Compared with
- A placebo intervention designed to maintain blinding.
- Main finding
- The trial reported a greater reduction in chronic primary low back pain with spinal manipulative therapy than with placebo, together with changes in mechanical pain sensitivity and pain catastrophising.
- Limitations
- The study examined chronic primary low back pain and should not be generalised to every cause of back pain. Individual trials should be considered alongside systematic reviews and other trials.
- Funding / conflicts
- See the original paper for full funding and conflict-of-interest details.
- Journal
- The Journal of Pain
- DOI
- 10.1016/j.jpain.2024.02.014