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Time Effects on Physical Performance in Older Adults in Nursing Home: A Narrative Review

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The journal of nutrition, health & aging

Abstract

Objectives

To gather available evidence about overtime changes on physical performance in institutionalized elderly.

Design, setting and participants

An electronic search was performed on PubMed database on May 2018. We selected articles reporting the evolution of physical performance in older adults living in care institutions. We looked for data from observational longitudinal studies; data from clinical trials were extracted only for subjects who did not receive exercise intervention. All types of performance-based tests, for upper- and/or lower-body, were scrutinized.

Results

Seventeen studies were reviewed; mean age varied from 78.3 to 88 years old. Fourteen studies were randomized controlled trials (RCTs), other three studies were non-randomized trials and a longitudinal observational study. Different tests assessing physical performance were examined: upper limb strength and lower limb strength, static balance, dynamic balance and mobility showed a tendency to decline over time. On average hand grip strength decreased by 2.2% per month, chair stand test by 3.5%, Berg balance scale by 2%, timed up-and-go test by 2.8%, gait speed by 2.1% and short physical performance battery by 2.8%. A minority of studies have shown an improvement in lower limb muscle strength, endurance and gait speed: in these studies, participants did not attend any kind of physical training but took part to social activities or cognitive interventions.

Conclusion

This review shows how physical performance decreases over time in nursing home residents and quantifies their decline. However, in active controls, there was an improvement in some physical performance measures, which indicates that intervention other than exercise might prevent some loss in physical performance.

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Acknowledgements

I would like to thank Mathieu Maltais and Philipe de Souto Barreto for their help and their work. A special thanks to Professor Yves Rolland and Professor Bruno Vellas for giving me the chance to work on his team.

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Author notes

  1. The authors contributed equally to this manuscript.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Gérontopôle de Toulouse, Institut du Vieillissement, Centre Hospitalo-Universitaire de Toulouse, Bâtiment B, 37 allée Jules Guesdes, 31000, Toulouse, France

    E. Masciocchi, Mathieu Maltais, Y. Rolland, B. Vellas & P. de Souto Barreto

  2. Division of Geriatrics, University of Verona, Verona, Italy

    E. Masciocchi

  3. France Faculté de médecine, UMR INSERM, 1027 University of Toulouse III, Toulouse, 37 allées Jules Guesde, 31000, Toulouse, France

    Y. Rolland, B. Vellas & P. de Souto Barreto

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  1. E. Masciocchi
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  2. Mathieu Maltais
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  3. Y. Rolland
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Correspondence to Mathieu Maltais.

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Masciocchi, E., Maltais, M., Rolland, Y. et al. Time Effects on Physical Performance in Older Adults in Nursing Home: A Narrative Review. J Nutr Health Aging 23, 586–594 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12603-019-1199-5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12603-019-1199-5

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