Exercise patterns in older adults instructed to follow moderate- or high-intensity exercise protocol – the generation 100 study

Abstract

BackgroundMaking older adults exercise and keeping them in exercise programs is a major challenge. Understanding how older adults prefer to exercise may help developing tailored exercise programs and increase sustained exercise participation in ageing populations. We aimed to describe exercise patterns, including frequency, intensity, type, location and social setting of exercise, in older adults instructed to follow continuous moderate-intensity training (MCT) or high-intensity interval training (HIIT) over a one-year period.MethodsFrequency, intensity, type, location and social setting (alone vs. together with others) of exercise were assessed using exercise logs from 618 older adults (aged 70–77 years) randomized to MCT or HIIT. All participants completed exercise logs after each exercise session they performed during one year. Pearson Chi-square tests were run to assess the association between intensity, type, location and social setting of exercise with training group.ResultsBoth groups performed 2.2 ± 1.3 exercise sessions per week during the year. Walking was the most common exercise type in both groups, but MCT had a higher proportion of walking sessions than HIIT (54.2% vs. 41.1%, p < 0.01). Compared to MCT, HIIT had a higher proportion of sessions with cycling (14.2% vs. 9.8%, p < 0.01), combined endurance and resistance training (10.3% vs. 7.5%, p < 0.01), jogging (6.5% vs. 3.2%, p < 0.01) and swimming (2.6% vs. 1.7%, p < 0.01). Outdoors was the most common exercise location in both training groups (67.8 and 59.1% of all sessions in MCT and HIIT, respectively). Compared to MCT, HIIT had a higher proportion of sessions at a gym (21.4% vs. 17.5%, p < 0.01) and sports facility (9.8% vs. 7.6%, p < 0.01). Both groups performed an equal amount of sessions alone and together with others, but women had a higher proportion of sessions together with others compared to men (56% vs. 44%, p < 0.01).ConclusionThis is the first study that has followed older adults instructed to perform MCT or HIIT over a one-year period, collected data from each exercise session they performed and provided important knowledge about their exercise patterns. This novel information may help researchers and clinicians to develop tailored exercise programs in an ageing population.

High-intensity exercise programs in people with dementia — a systematic review and meta-analysis

“…When combining the values recorded by all three large-scale studies, on average 63.5% of the exercises were actually performed with high intensities, which is a limitation and might lead to an overestimation of high-intensity effects per se. However, this score is comparable to the results of a recent study by Reitlo et al (2018), in which participants of a HIT intervention achieved a score of 60%. Chong et al (2014) demonstrated that people with cognitive impairments prefer simple, light and safe exercises.…”

Adherence to Exercise Programs in Older Adults: Informative Report

“…In OA, HIET improves aerobic capacity (Robinson et al, 2017), mechanical efficiency (Jabbour, Iancu, Mauriège, Joanisse, & Martin, 2017), glucose tolerance and reduced blood pressure (Izadi, Ghardashi, Asvadi, & Babaee Bigi, 2018; Lithgow & Leggate, 2018), inflammation in osteo- and rheumatoid arthritis (Bartlett et al, 2018; Keogh, Grigg, & Vertullo, 2018), and a reduced risk of falls (Jiménez-García et al, 2018). Reitlo et al (2018), in a 1-year study in OA (70-77 years), showed that adherence to HIET was consistently higher than MICT in exercise programs involving cycling, resistance exercise, jogging, or swimming. Others (Jiménez-García et al, 2018; Lacroix et al, 2016; Steib et al, 2010) indicated that, in OA, HIET enhances functional chores related to safety, climbing stairs, recovery when stumbling, and tasks such as moving the lower limb to keep from falling.…”

Condición física funcional en adultos mayores institucionalizados

“…Los cambios asociados al envejecimiento impactan significativamente la composición corporal. El IMC identificado en el presente estudio fue de 24,9 kg/m 2 en la población total; esto significa que tanto en hombres como mujeres la diferencia es de 3% con respecto a lo encontrado en estudios como el de Kyrdalen et al (23) , Reitlo et al (24) y Kim et al (25) . Sin embargo, aunque el IMC como parámetro de adiposidad corporal, es un indicador ampliamente utilizado en estudios epidemiológicos para determinar el estado nutricional, sería pertinente realizar un análisis de la composición corporal desde la relación entre la masa muscular, masa grasa y osea con el propósito de estimar factores de riesgo asociados a la aparición de la sarcopenia o la caquexia (26) .…”