Increasing physical activity for an elderly population can have a significant effect on functional fitness and activities of daily living by increasing muscular strength, endurance, and gait speed. PURPOSE: To identify functional fitness changes on an elderly population through a 6-month walking intervention program. METHODS: Twenty one healthy, older individuals were recruited from a Senior Center (age: 72.4±6.1 yrs; height: 158.9±6.6 cm; weight: 81.1±12.7 kg; BMI: 31.9±0.9). Subjects self-selected to participate in either a walking (WG) or control (CON) group. Subjects in the WG were given a pedometer to wear and were assigned a daily step goal of eventually reaching ≥10,000 steps/day. Each month, subjects were evaluated using: six-minute walk (6min) test, a 20 m walk at a maximum pace (with initial 2.44 m and middle 10 m components), 30 s chair stand (CS) task that measured the number of CS, and lastly a get-up-and-go (GUAG) task that measured the time to walk 2.44 m after standing from a seated position and returning to a seated position. A two-way ANOVA with repeated measures was used to make group and time (baseline vs. month 3) comparisons.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.