The impact of daily exercise on the mobility, balance and urine control of cognitively impaired nursing home residents.

The purpose of this intervention study was to examine the impact of a daily exercise regimen on the mobility, balance, and urine control of a sample of cognitively impaired elderly nursing home residents. A quasi-experimental pretest-posttest design was used with 15 elderly, cognitively impaired, incontinent nursing home residents. Data were collected regarding walking distance, speed of walking, balance ability, ability to rise from a chair unassisted, ability to walk unassisted, and incidence of urinary incontinence before and after a month of daily assisted walking. Subjects were able to walk significantly greater distances before tiring after the exercise regimen. In addition, the incidence of urinary incontinence was significantly decreased.