Feasibility Of Square-Stepping Exercise To Improve Mobility And Cognition In Long-Term Care And Retirement Living
Description: Older adults who reside in long term care or retirement living are at a higher risk for future cognitive decline. Research has shown that exercise and brain training programs can independently improve overall brain health and functioning. Our mind-motor exercise program, Square-Stepping Exercise (SSE), has demonstrated improvements in falls risk, lower body strength, memory and overall brain health in community-dwelling older adults. Our aim in the current project was to determine if SSE can be successful in long term care and retirement living homes in adults with cognitive or mobility impairments. We used 4 sites, which were randomized, like the flip of a coin, to either the square-stepping exercise program for 2 times per week for 12 weeks or a wait-list control group. We recruited a total of 71 residents across the 4 sites; 30 in the SSE group and 41 in the control group. In the SSE group, the residents were on average 80.5 years old, 77% were female, and had an average of 12.2 years of education. We found there was a lot of variation in the number of SSE sessions the residents attended. Of 30 residents, 14 attended over 50% of sessions (range 8-79%). The number of residents attending the SSE sessions ranged from 3-12, with an average of 5.5 in long term care and 7.8 in retirement living. We did have to modify the program to adjust for cognitive and mobility impairments through feedback from the Kinesiologists who delivered the program at all sites. Overall, feedback was positive with comments that SSE is fun but also challenging. We concluded that SSE is a feasible program in long term care and retirement living with modifications and flexibility in program progression.
Amount: CA$1,000
Funding type: fellowship
Funder scheme: Travel Awards - Institute Community Support
Start date: 2017-04-01
End date: 2018-03-31
Investigator: Erin Shellington
Institution: Western University (Ontario)
Funded outputs count: 0
Funder award ID: 152054_1
OpenAlex ID: G5207582393