Effects on body composition of different short-term rehabilitation programs in long-stay hospitalized elderly women

Long-stay hospitalized elderly women usually reduce daily living activities: this may lead to an accelerated worsening of body composition, cardio-metabolic condition and falls risk. Exercise training and electrical stimulation may ameliorate such condition.

The effects of 3 different short-term rehabilitation programs on lower limbs (kinesitherapy [KT], electrical stimulation [ES], KT combined with ES [KT+ES], 3 day/week for 6 weeks) were assessed on 40 hospitalized elderly women (82±7 yrs, 59.5±12.3 kg, 152±7 cm [m±SD]; n=10 for each intervention group and n=10 as control subjects [no intervention]). Segmental (upper and lower limbs) and total body fat mass (FM), fat free mass (FFM), bone mineral content (BMC) and density (BMD), resting energy expenditure (REE), maximum voluntary force (MVC) of leg extensor muscles and cardiorespiratory performance (6-min walking test [6MVT]) were evaluated before and after intervention.

Compared to baseline, the distance covered by the 6MWT significantly increased after all rehabilitation programs (from 247±79 to 271±87 m, p<0.01), whereas significant increases in leg extensor muscles MVC were found after ES (+26%) and KT+ES (+16%) only, p<0.05. No changes in segmental and total body FM, FFM and REE were observed, whereas legs BMC significantly increased (2.7%) after KT only (p<0.05).

Although all treatments increased cardiorespiratory performance, and KT and ES ameliorated muscle force, the proposed short-term exercise programs had poor effects on body composition. This suggests that longer programs, maybe combined with a tailored dietary intervention, should be administered to improve body composition in rehabilitating institutionalized elderly people.