‘Can do’ versus ‘do do’ in nursing home residents: Discriminating groups with aligned or misaligned physical activity and physical capacity

Michael Adams, Alexander Elser, Madeleine Fricke, Lydia Jaufmann, Bettina Wollesen, Thomas Mühlbauer, Carl-Phillipp Jansen, Michael Schwenk
Purpose:

The aim of this study was to examine contextual factors in nursing home residents with aligned or misaligned PA and PC.The purpose of this study was to examine contextual factors in nursing home residents with aligned or misaligned PA and PC.

Methods:

In total, 180 nursing home residents (≥65 years, 79.4% females) were divided into four quadrants (Q1: Can do - do do; Q2: Can do - don’t do; Q3: Can’t do - do do; Q4: Can't do - don’t do) based on thresholds for PA (≥ or 2,500 steps/day) and PC (≤ or > 0.5 m/s gait speed). Kruskal-Wallis H test and effect sizes (ES) were applied to analyze quadrants’ differences regarding PA (steps per day), objective motor capacity, life-space mobility, activities of daily living (ADL), psychosocial well-being, cognition, subjective mobility-related concerns, and spatial orientation.

Results:

Specific contextual factors differed significantly between the groups. Compared to Q1, Q2 presents a significantly lower life-space mobility (ES: 0.35) and objective motor capacity (ES: 0-36-0.49); Q3 has a lower objective motor capacity (ES: 0.55-1.10); Q4 shows lower independence in ADL (ES: 0.57), life-space mobility (ES: 0.48), subjective mobility-related concerns (ES: 0.38) and objective motor capacity (ES: 0.99-1.08). No significant group differences were found for psychosocial well-being, cognition, and spatial orientation.

Conclusion(s):

The present study provides new insights into the PA behaviour of residents in nursing homes. The most important variables associated with PA are objective motor capacity, mobility in the living space, ADL and subjective concerns related to mobility. Surprisingly, some potentially influential variables such as cognition, orientation and psychosocial well-being did not differ between the groups. This may indicate that these variables are not important targets for interventions to improve PA.

Implications:

This study provides the basis for further research into the underlying mechanisms of PA behaviour and supports future efforts to plan specific, targeted physiotherapeutic interventions for nursing home residents.

Funding acknowledgements:
This study is supported by the health insurance Techniker Krankenkasse (Germany). Open Access funding enabled and organized by Projekt DEAL.
Keywords:
geriatric
older adults
care
Primary topic:
Health promotion and wellbeing/healthy ageing/physical activity
Did this work require ethics approval?:
Yes
Name the institution and ethics committee that approved your work:
Technical University Berlin local ethics committee
Provide the ethics approval number:
GR_14_20191217
Has any of this material been/due to be published or presented at another national or international conference prior to the World Physiotherapy Congress 2025?:
No

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