Could Moderate Intensity Physical Activity Reduce Disability in Older Adults?

A structured, moderate intensity physical activity program reduced severe mobility disability in older adults with functional limitations, according to a recent study.

In order to test the hypothesis that a long-term structured physical activity program could help to reduce risk of major mobility disability, researchers conducted a study study including 1635 sedentary men and women from 70 to 89 years of age who had functional limitations, which were defined on the Short Physical Performance Battery as a score greater than or equal to 9. Researcher randomly assigned 818 participants to a structured, moderate intensity physical activity program, and 817 were assigned to a health education program. The average follow-up was 2.6 years.
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Dependency and disability in participants in both programs were self-reported in periodic interviews. Dependency was defined as participants needing assistance or unable to do 1 or more activity, and disability was defined as “a lot of difficulty” or unable to do 1 or more activity. Researchers defined severe disability as unable or having difficulty doing 3 or more activities.

The moderate intensity physical activity program included aerobic, resistance, balance-training, and flexibility exercises 3 to 4 times a week, and 30 minutes of daily walking. The health education program included weekly workshops for 26 weeks, decreased to monthly sessions, and covered topics relevant to older adults but not related to physical activity. In addition, the program included a 5- to 10-minute instructor-led program of gentle upper extremity stretching or flexibility exercises.

Their results showed that the cumulative incidence of basic activities of daily living dependency was 15.2% in participants in the physical activity group and 15.1% in participants in the health education group. In addition, disability in instrumental activities of daily living and mobility disability rates were similar between the 2 groups.

Participants in the physical activity group reported less severe mobility disability than the health education group.

“The results suggest that a physical activity program designed to preserve mobility is effective, but carry over benefits on [activities of daily living] dependency, [activities of daily living] disability and [instrumental activities of daily living] disability are not achieved,” the researchers wrote.

—Melissa Weiss

Reference:

Manini TM, Beavers DP, Pahor M, et al. Effect of physical activity on self-reported disability in older adults: results from the LIFE study [published online February 7, 2017]. Journal of the American Geriatrics Society. doi:10.1111/jgs.14742.