A Short-term Mixed Exercise for Sarcopenic Hospitalized Aged 80+ Years

Effectiveness of a Short-term Mixed Exercise Program for Treating Sarcopenia in Hospitalized Patients Aged 80 Years and Older

Most previous clinical trials that addressed exercise for sarcopenic elderly subjects focused on community-dwelling older adults who were relatively healthy. There is a notable paucity of high-quality research investigating the effects and feasibility of exercise for hospitalized or institutionalized older people, who are generally frailer and more severe in functional impairment than those living in the community. Moreover, most reported exercise programs were of long-term duration, which typically lasted 3 to 6 months with two sessions per week. It remains unclear whether short-term exercise would be effective for treating sarcopenia. Therefore, the investigators aimed to assess the effectiveness of short-term exercise for treating sarcopenia in hospitalized older patients aged 80 years and over.

a mixed exercise program including aerobic, balance, and resistance exercises that were personally tailored.

The training to improve balance is to work on the core muscle groups that help to maintain your posture.,and increase muscular strength.

Resistance training is a form of exercise that improves muscular strength and endurance. During a resistance training workout, you move your limbs against resistance provided by your body weight, gravity, bands, weighted bars or dumbbells.

Aerobic exercise is any activity that gets your blood pumping and large muscle groups working. It's also known as cardiovascular activity.

Basic activities of daily living (BADL) assessed by Barthel Index. The total score for Barthel Index ranges from 0 (worst) to 100 (best) points.

The Short Physical Performance Battery (SPPB) is an objective assessment tool for evaluating lower extremity functioning in older persons. The total score for SPPB ranges from 0 (worst) to 12 (best) points.

The Timed Up and Go test (TUG) is a simple test used to measure basic functional mobility and safety with mobility. The score for the TUG is the time consumption of the whole process. The longer time consuption indicates the more worse outcome.

Inclusion Criteria: aged ≥80 years; being able to ambulate (assistance was acceptable); being able to communicate and collaborate with the physiotherapist; with sarcopenia defined by the AWGS criteria ; Exclusion Criteria: terminal illness; uncontrolled heart failure; myocardial infarction within the past three months; uncontrolled respiratory failure; bone fractures within the past three months; acute pulmonary embolism; major surgery within the past three months; uncontrolled arrhythmia; refusal to participate in this study.