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S. Aggarwal1, H. Liu1, Q.-W. Wu2, R.-J. Chen2, Y. Salem1,3
1University of North Texas Health Science Center, Physical Therapy, Fort Worth, United States, 2North China University of Science and Technology, Rehabilitation, Tangshan, China, 3Cairo University, Cairo, Egypt
Background: Exercise intervention, especially resistance training, is a necessary and key for prevention and treatment of frailty. Elastic bands are safe and efficacious for elderly individuals while being popular for home-based exercise programs.
Purpose: To evaluate whether elastic band exercise can prevent frailty states, and improve grip strength (female/male), walking speed, and physical activity in pre-frail elderly people.
Methods: A total of 70 pre-frail elderly people were randomly divided into elastic band group and control group - 35 people in each group. The elastic band group was treated with elastic band exercise while the control group maintained normal daily activity and did not receive any special intervention. Elastic band exercise was composed of 8 movements and was performed for 45-60 minutes per time (including warm-up activities before exercise and relaxed activities after exercise) for 8 weeks by 3 days a week. The frailty states, grip strength (female/male), and walking speed were measured by the Fried frailty phenotype at pre-intervention, 4 and 8 weeks after intervention to assess the exercise effects of pre-frail elderly people.
Results: (1) Between-group analysis showed statistically significant differences in the frailty states, grip strength (female) and walking speed respectively after 4-week and 8-week intervention (P<0.001), and statistically significant in grip strength (male) after 8-week intervention (P<0.05).
(2) Within-group analysis (pre-intervention vs after 4-week, after 4-week vs after 8-week, pre-intervention vs after 8-week) showed statistically significant improvements (P<0.001) in grip strength (female/male) and walking speed in elastic band group, while no statistically significant improvements in control group (P>0.05).
(2) Within-group analysis (pre-intervention vs after 4-week, after 4-week vs after 8-week, pre-intervention vs after 8-week) showed statistically significant improvements (P<0.001) in grip strength (female/male) and walking speed in elastic band group, while no statistically significant improvements in control group (P>0.05).
Conclusion(s): Elastic band exercise is helpful to postpone the frailty states in pre-frail elderly people, effectively improve the grip strength and walking speed, and the effects after 8 weeks are better than those of 4 weeks.
Implications: Preventing and reverting frailty in a simple and effective manner improves patient outcomes & quality of life through greater functional independence. Elastic bands can easily be implemented in clinical practice to meet these goals.
Funding, acknowledgements: No funding to declare.
Keywords: frailty, elastic-band, elderly
Topic: Older people
Did this work require ethics approval? Yes
Institution: North China University of Science and Technology
Committee: Ethics Committee of the North China University of Science and Technology
Ethics number: 2017241
All authors, affiliations and abstracts have been published as submitted.
