Frailty in older adults is related to an increased risk for poor health outcomes including falls, disability, hospitalization and mortality. The purpose of this study was to determine the thresholds of a functional fitness associated with frailty for community-dwelling woman aged 65 or older. In this study, the National Fitness Award(NFA) items for elderly were utilized as the physical function and fitness testing for korean elderly women. The total of 444 community-dwelling woman completed the testings. Frailty status was classified by the Japan LTCI system ‘Kihon Checklist’ in the study. The prevalence of the frailty was 19.1% in the study. The frail elderly were older and showed higher obesity index such as weight, body mass index (BMI), percent body fat and waist circumference than the normal elderly. After adjusting for age and BMI which was related to frailty, fitness testing items were compared depending on frailty. As the result, the frail elderly showed significantly lower fitness levels in grip strength, 30-second chair stand test, timed up and go, figure-of-8 walk around two cones, and 2-minute step test than the normal elderly. When the fitness cut-off values were analyzed using the ROC curve, also, grip strength: 34.13%, 30-second chair stand test: 14 reps, timed up and go: 7.09 seconds, figure-of-8 walk around two cones: 30.88 seconds, and 2-minute step test: 93 reps. In addition, based on the cut-off values of each fitness item, the group with a low fitness level showed a 1.86 to 3.09 higher odds ratio of frailty than the group with a high fitness level, even after age and BMI were adjusted. In conclusion, these findings indicate that the fitness cut-off values in this study are fitness levels for preventing frailty of Korean elderly women and there will be a need for a large-scale study including subdivided fitness cut-off values for each age group and targets elderly men as well.
PURPOSE This study was conducted to investigate the effects of a 12-week walkingbased exercise program with square stepping exercise (SSE) on chronic pain and sleep in community-dwelling Korean older adults. METHODS A total of 42 older adults who had not participated in a registered exercise program in the past 3 months were included, among whom 20 participants in the exercise group engaged in a walking exercise program once a week for 60 min per session for 12 weeks. Repeated measures two-way analysis of variance was used to analyze pre- and postinterventions data on chronic pain and sleep. RESULTS The exercise group showed a significant improvement in the chronic pain score after the intervention (2.0 ± 1.4 vs 1.4 ± 0.8, p < .05). Similarly, there was a significant difference in the Korean version of the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index score in the exercise group after the intervention (6.1 ± 1.8 vs 4.9 ± 2.6, p < .05). CONCLUSIONS The walking-based exercise program with SSE is an effective intervention for alleviating chronic pain and simultaneously improving sleep quality in older adults. Our study suggests that a walking-based exercise program, which includes varied stepping patterns, could be a viable approach for addressing societal challenges, including the increasing healthcare expenses due to chronic pain or sleep disorders in a super-aging society.
