Exercise Intervention for Anti-Sarcopenia in Community-Dwelling Older People

Sarcopenia is an age-related health problem in general communities. Effective exercise programs against sarcopenia remain necessary for community-dwelling older people. In order to summarize the available knowledge on this subject, we collected English articles from a MEDLINE/Pubmed database examining the effects of exercise interventions on sarcopenia-related outcome measures in community-dwelling older people. When nine articles, including eight randomized controlled trials, were reviewed, most studies demonstrated significant improvements in some outcome measures. Indeed, a significant improvement in the muscle mass in one study, muscle strength in two studies and physical performance in two studies was reported among five studies using exercise (E) alone. A significant improvement in the muscle mass in two studies, muscle strength in one study and physical performance in two studies was also reported among four studies using exercise plus nutritional supplementation (EN). Notably, the EN studies appeared to have less extensive exercise interventions than the E studies. One EN study further exhibited significant improvements in all outcome measures. Collectively, exercise could be used as anti-sarcopenic strategies and nutritional interventions when combined with exercise might play a compensated or perhaps a comprehensive role among community-dwelling older people. Limited studies exist and more studies are required for the optimum programs in the community settings.