Changes in activities of daily living, physical fitness, and depressive symptoms after six-month periodic well-rounded exercise programs for older adults living in nursing homes or special nursing facilities.

A 6-month, twice weekly, well-rounded exercise program (47 sessions in total) comprised of a combination of aerobic, resistance and flexibility training was provided for institutionalized older adults aged 60 to 93. We analyzed the data of 18 older adults who could stand and had attended more than 10% of the classes (mean participation rate: 54%) to examine changes in activities of daily living (ADL), physical fitness tests and depressive moods. The mean (+/- standard deviation, range) age of the participants was 71.3 (+/- 15.6, 60-93) in men and 85.9 (+/- 5.8, 72-93) in women. Significant improvement in ADL of the hand manipulation domain and borderline significant improvement in ADL of the mobility domain were observed (McNemar test p = 0.011 and 0.072, respectively). A 6-minute walk distance increased significantly from 151.6 m to 236.6 m (p = 0.01, paired t-test), and the result of the Soda Pop test, which tests hand-eye coordination, also improved significantly from 35.2 sec to 25.3 sec (p = 0.01, paired t-test). These findings suggest that such a program could be effective in improving the ADL and physical fitness of the elderly.