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

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. © © 2025 Hernandez-Martinez, Cid-Calfucura, Vázquez-Carrasco, Fritz-Silva, Herrera-Valenzuela, Branco, Zapata-Bastias and Valdés-Badilla.