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Age and Ageing Advance Access published online on July 23, 2007
Age and Ageing, doi:10.1093/ageing/afm093
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Copyright © The Author 2007. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the British Geriatrics Society.

Sit-to-stand as home exercise for mobility-limited adults over 80 years of age—GrandStand SystemTM may keep you standing?

Juliet Rosie and Denise Taylor

Health and Rehabilitation Research Centre, School of Physiotherapy, AUT University, Auckland, New Zealand

Address correspondence to: Juliet Rosie. Tel: +64 9 921 9999 x7177; Fax: +64 9 921 9620. Email: juliet.rosie{at}aut.ac.nz

Purpose to compare the effects of functional home exercise of repeated sit-to-stands with low-intensity progressive resistance training, on performance measures in mobility-limited adults over 80 years of age.

Setting participants' homes.

Design community-dwelling older adults ≥80 years of age were invited to participate in a randomised controlled clinical trial. Baseline and outcome measures were: comfortable gait velocity, 30-s chair-stand test, 15-s step test, Berg Balance Scale, Modified Falls Efficacy Scale and the Late-Life Function and Disability Instrument—function component. Participants randomised to the intervention group performed repeated sit-to-stands using a GrandStand SystemTM; a biofeedback device that recorded and displayed the number of repetitions performed. Participants randomised to the control group performed knee extensions using ankle cuff weights. Both groups performed the exercises daily for 6 weeks.

Results sixty-six older adults took part. The intervention group had a statistically significant improvement in Berg Balance Scale mean score, 1.67 ± 2.64 points, P = 0.001 (control group 0.73 ± 3.63 points, P = 0.258), indicating an improvement in balance over the 6-week exercise period. There was no statistically significant effect of either intervention on the other outcome measures.

Conclusions in a highly variable population of older adults with mobility limitations, low-intensity functional home exercise of repeated sit-to-stands using the GrandStand SystemTM improved Berg Balance Scale score while low-intensity progressive resistance training did not. While statistically significant, the improvement in Berg Balance Scale score was modest raising the issue of what extent of change in score is clinically significant in this population.

Keywords: aged, 80 and over, balance, exercise, physical functioning, elderly

Received 17 October 2006; accepted in revised form 25 May 2007.


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