A Randomized Controlled Trial of a Home Exercise Programme for Elderly People with Poor Mobility

Abstract

Eighty-six elderly people with limited mobility and dependence in at least one activity of daily living were recruited to a home exercise study. The subjects (mean age 82 years) were allocated at random to either a strength exercise group, a mobility exercise group or a health education group. Subjects were visited for 30 minutes every 3-4 weeks by a physiotherapist who gave both verbal and written instruction. Sixty-nine of the original 86 completed the 6-month study, with five drop-outs from the strength group, ten drop-outs from the mobility group, and two drop-outs from the health education group. By the end of the study, there were no significant differences between the groups with regard to changes in outcome variables. The results showed a trend towards improvement in both the exercise groups in both Sit to Stand and Timed Get Up and Go tests, but this failed to attain statistical significance. Further work is required to identify the optimal exercise intervention for this subgroup of the elderly population.

Systematic review of functional training on muscle strength, physical functioning, and activities of daily living in older adults

“…However, improving muscle strength yields only a small change, sometimes even nonsignificant change, in reducing late-life disability in the outcome of ADL [48,27,26,33,4,10,29,37]. For transfer of physical benefits of resistance strength training to ADL performance seems to be limited.…”

Outcome Evaluation of the Canadian Centre for Activity and Aging’s Home Support Exercise Program for Frail Older Adults

“…A review by Atienza (2001) showed that most empirically examined home-based exercise interventions to date have focused on healthy older adults. Only seven studies were found that specifically targeted frail older adults in the community (Campbell et al, 1997;Gill et al, 2002;Jette et al, 1998;McCool & Schneider, 1999;McMurdo & Johnstone, 1995;Westhoff, Stemmerik, & Boshuizen, 2000;Worm et al, 2001). These interventions varied widely with respect to participant-recruitment strategies, eligibility criteria, exercise prescriptions, and duration (ranging from 2 to 6 months).…”

“…Physician referrals constituted the typical recruitment strategy. Only four of the protocols were totally home based (Campbell et al;Gill et al;Jette et al, 1998;McMurdo & Johnstone). Four focused exclusively on strength or resistance training (Gill et al;Jette et al, 1998;McCool & Schneider;Westhoff et al).…”

Aging and Exercise Training on the Neuromuscular Functions of Human Movements

“…For this reason, exercise training at home or a community center without using strength training equipment has become increasingly in demand by elderly individuals. Some home-based exercise programs have shown benefits to functional abilities in daily activities of elderly individuals (King et al 1991;McMurdo & Johnstone, 1995). It is important to understand how exercise training with using own bodyweight in elderly individuals affects muscle functions that relate to daily activity.…”