A RANDOMIZED CONTROLLED TRIAL OF A HOME EXERCISE PROGRAM FOR ELDERLY PEOPLE WITH POOR MOBILITY

Eighty-six elderly people with limited mobility and dependence in at l east one activity of daily living were recruited to a home exercise st udy. The subjects (mean age 82 years) were allocated at random to eith er a strength exercise group, a mobility exercise group or a health ed ucation group. Subjects were visited for 30 minutes every 3-4 weeks by a physiotherapist who gave both verbal and written instruction. Sixty -nine of the original 86 completed the 6-month study, with five drop-o uts from the strength group, ten drop-outs from the mobility group, an d two drop-outs from the health education group. By the end of the stu dy, there were no significant differences between the groups with rega rd to changes in outcome variables. The results showed a trend towards improvement in both the exercise groups in both Sit to Stand and Time d Get Up and Go tests, but this failed to attain statistical significa nce. Further work is required to identify the optimal exercise interve ntion for this subgroup of the elderly population.