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Fitness & Exercise for Senior Citizens
Even if Elderly Have Passed 80 They Can Regain
Physical Function, Avoid Disability
Walking at a moderate intensity 150
minutes a week, leg stretches, balance exercises and leg-strengthening
did the trick
 November 17, 2006 Even if you have passed 70,
even if you passed 80, and you are what is called "sedentary" (tending to
sit most of the time and getting little exercise), there is still hope
to improve your physical functioning and reduce the likelihood of
becoming disabled in the future. This is according to a new study of
elderly people ages 70 to 89.
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on
Senior Citizen Fitness & Exercise |
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Regular structured exercise, the researchers say,
is what it takes. These findings, from a multicenter pilot study, were
presented today at the Gerontological Society of America's annual
meeting in Dallas. The results of the study, known as the Lifestyle
Interventions and Independence For Elders Pilot (LIFE-P) study, also
appear in the November issue of the Journal of Gerontology: Medical
Sciences.
The pilot study included senior researchers from
the University of Pittsburgh Graduate School of Public Health (GSPH),
the Cooper Institute in Dallas, Stanford University, Wake Forest
University and the University of Florida.
It involved administering a structured physical
activity consisting primarily of walking at a moderate intensity for at
least 150 minutes a week, coupled with leg stretches, balance exercises
and leg-strengthening exercises, to a group of sedentary elderly people
ages 70 to 89.
A second "control" group of elderly were given only
instructions on "successful aging," which included information on good
nutrition and the proper use of medications, foot care and preventive
services. The physical functioning of both groups was tested before the
interventions and twice during the one-year intervention.
Over the follow-up period, participants in the
structured physical activity group increased their performance score on
a test known as the Short Physical Performance Battery, or SPPB, from a
baseline average of about 7.5 to about 8.5.
Many participants in the "successful aging"
intervention group actually saw a decline in their score.
In addition, participants in the physical activity
group improved their performance on a second assessment, a 400-meter
walking test, and had a lower incidence of a major mobility disability,
defined as an inability to walk a quarter mile, than did those in the
control group.
Even a small improvement of a half point on the
SPPB test score's scale of 0 to 12 may represent major improvement in an
elder person's ability to perform activities of daily living, such as
walking across a room, dressing, eating or bathing. A low score, between
0 and 4, is a strong risk factor for disability and death. The LIFE-P
study looked at people with intermediate scores from 4 to 9 to see if
exercise could improve or prevent a decline in their scores.
According to Anne B. Newman, M.D., M.P.H.,
professor of epidemiology and medicine and director of the Center for
Aging and Population Health, GSPH, and the principal investigator for
the University of Pittsburgh field center, these findings confirm that
even sedentary elderly can be brought back from the precipice of
disability by moderate, structured exercise.
"This pilot demonstrates the physical activity was
extremely safe for the study participants elderly people at a high
risk of becoming disabled," Dr. Newman said.
Previous research has demonstrated that scores on
the SPPB are highly predictive of future health problems. People with
lower scores are more likely than others to die earlier, have health
problems, be institutionalized and become unable to get around.
Furthermore, in other studies, Dr. Newman's group has demonstrated that
the inability to walk 400 meters is a significant predictor of future
disability and premature death.
The LIFE-P study principal investigator, Marco
Pahor, M.D., professor and chairman of the department of aging and
geriatric research, University of Florida (UF) College of Medicine, and
director of the UF Institute on Aging, emphasized that this is among the
first studies to demonstrate that physical decline in the elderly is
reversible. "Previously, we had no definitive empirical evidence that
the score on the SPPB test could be modified," he said.
"This analysis showed that, compared with those who
received health education, participants in the physical activity group
had a 29 percent lower risk of being unable to walk 400 meters," said
Dr. Pahor.
Jack M. Guralnik, M.D., Ph.D., co-principal
investigator for the study and chief of the National Institute of
Aging's (NIA) Laboratory of Epidemiology, Demography and Biometry, added
that the study is very promising in regard to developing programs to
keeping the elderly fit and mobile. "Lower-extremity functioning is a
good reflection of overall functioning and disability in older adults.
So, we are encouraged by these results, which demonstrate that a
well-designed program combining aerobic, strength, balance and
flexibility exercises can make a difference for those who are at high
risk of losing mobility function," said Dr. Guralnik.
UF researchers are planning to conduct a full-scale
study, testing 2,500 adults at 10 different sites over four years the
longest study to date to assess whether structured exercise can delay
the inability to walk 400 meters, or a quarter mile.
"The results from this pilot study are very
promising and indicate that a full-scale study is warranted," said Dr.
Newman, whose center will be involved in the larger study.
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