The Relationship between Age and Change in Physical Functions after Exercise Intervention. Trainability of Japanese Community-Dwelling Older Elderly.

The purposes of this study were to evaluate the relationship between age and changes in physical measurements after exercise intervention and to investigate the trainability of the older elderly. Two hundred seventy-six community-dwelling people aged 60 years and older practiced exercise intervention for 3 months. The measurements of physical functions were one-legged standing with eyes open and closed (OLS-O, OLS-C), functional reach test (FR), timed up and go test (TUG), maximum walking velocity, flexibility, and muscle strength. We evaluated the associations between age and the changes in these physical measurements. All measurements except for OLS-C significantly improved after intervention. The magnitude of the changes in hand-grip strength and FR after the intervention showed weak negative correlations with the subject's age, but other measurements showed no correlations. In addition, there were no differences between younger elderly persons and older elderly persons with regard to changes in any measurements. These results suggested that the exercise intervention we applied could improve physical fitness in community-dwelling older people, regardless of their age. The older elderly were comparable to the younger elderly in trainability to improve physical fitness.