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 > or =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 System; 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 System 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.