Group-training to sustain function for community-dwelling elderly people: implementation and evaluation

Objective: This article describes participant characteristics in health promoting groups for community-dwelling older adults, the feasibility of the exercise model and the effect on physical functioning. Design: The study is a clinical quality assurance project. Material: Fifty older adults recruited from newspapers announcements and publicity in the community performed pre testing prior to participation. Of these, twenty-eight completed post-testing after seven months of group exercise. Methods: Physical functioning was assessed by the Senior Fitness Test (SFT), the Falls Efficacy Scale-International (FES-I), and the Physical Functioning scale from Short Formular 36 (SF-36). Group exercise lasted for one hour once a week, and included strength, balance and flexibility exercises. Results: Participants mean age was 78.2 years (SD 6.2) and 80 percent were women. 38 percent had suffered a fall within the past year. 90 percent reported good health and 84 percent reported fear of falling. The compliance with the group exercise was 82.9 percent. There were no improvements in SF-36, or SFT, but a reduction in fear of falling from 23.3 to 21.6, on a scale ranging from 16 to 64 (p=0.023). Conclusion: The paper describes a low cost group exercise model and how it can be carried out as an initiative to maintain physical function in community-dwelling older adults. In order to improve physical function the group exercise of 0.7 x per week should be combined with home exercise programs or other physical activity programs