Exercise Intervention for Patients With Sarcopenia or Frailty in Long-term Care Institutions

Sarcopenia is a geriatric syndrome of decreased muscle volume with muscular function decline. There is more tendency for sarcopenic elderly to be frail, disabled, or have cardiovascular disease. Compared to those who are not sarcopenic, they also had worse prognosis in response to treatment for definite diseases, and spend more medical cost. Exercise appears to have an important role in management of sarcopenia. In the current study, the investigators provide an exercise program, including resistance/balance training for the elderly with sarcopenia or frailty in long-term care institution, and evaluate the effect.

Patients in experimental group attend group exercise program, instructed by fitness trainer, at long-term care institutions. Frequency: 3 times per week. Type: resistance/flexibility/balance training, including warm-up and cold-down. Duration: 1 hour per time, for 16 weeks.

Patients in control group receive oral education for self exercise program, mainly resistance muscle training. Patients are requested to do self-training for 16 weeks.

Inclusion Criteria: >20-year-old diagnosed with sarcopenia (by the definition from Asia workgroup for sarcopenia, AWGS) or frailty (The Fried model, based on five functional criteria) Exclusion Criteria: Severe medical diseases or mental problems, which result in difficulty to follow exercise program. Inability to get down from bed for activity due to disease, such as neuropathy or orthopedic disease. High risk group for exercise program, such as those with unstable fracture or nonunion fracture. Anyone who didn't want attend this study.