None listed
Conditions
Brief summary
Objective: Evaluate the chronic effects of stretching on the muscle strength, flexibility and functionality in institutionalized elderly women. Design: Randomized Controlled Trial. Setting: Sao Vicente de Paulo Nursing home. Participants: Elderly women (N=19; 67 years) Interventions: Control Group (CG, n=09) received educational lectures and enjoyable-cultural activities; Stretching Group (SG, n=07), Active stretching of hamstrings, 4 bouts of 1 min, both 3 sessions/week, during 8 weeks. Main Outcome Measures: Assessment of isokinetic strength, range of motion (ROM) of knee flexor and extensor muscles were performed before and after 8 weeks. Functionality was analyzed by Barthel. Results: Flexibility of hamstrings increased in SG when compared to pre-training (59.5 degrees vs 76.5 degrees) and CG (76.5 degrees vs 64.0 degrees) the CG decreased ROM of the hip bi-articular flexor muscles (118.3 degrees vs 124 degrees) and eccentric knee extensor peak torque, compared to pre test (-60.5 Nm degrees vs -49.4 Nm degrees). Conclusion: Stretching program was effective to increase ROM of knee flexor muscles. A lack of stretching can cause flexibility losses and muscle strength reduction.
Interventions
Initially, 142 women were contacted via the administration of a long term care facility. Sixty-one women were excluded from the study as they presented limited mobility condition (use of wheel chair, cane or other walking devices), 10 were found to experience health problems and 52 subjects presented restrictions to the practice of physical activities. Thus, nineteen elderly women were divided into 2 groups at random: Control Group (CG, n=09) participated in enjoyable-cultural activities as pla
Initially, 142 women were contacted via the administration of a long term care facility. Sixty-one women were excluded from the study as they presented limited mobility condition (use of wheel chair, cane or other walking devices), 10 were found to experience health problems and 52 subjects presented restrictions to the practice of physical activities. Thus, nineteen elderly women were divided into 2 groups at random: Control Group (CG, n=09) participated in enjoyable-cultural activities as playing with balloons or balls, the chair dance and movements of the upper and lower limbs; The Stretching Group (SG, n=07) performed active stretching of hamstrings, 4 bouts of 1 min each. Both groups were supervised 3 times per week over a period of 8 weeks.
Sponsors
Sao Vicente de Paulo long-stay Institution, Curitiba, Parana, Brazil.
Study design
Allocation
Randomised controlled trial
Intervention model
Parallel
Primary purpose
Treatment
Masking
Blinded (masking used)
Eligibility
Sex/Gender
All
Age
60 Years to 80 Years
Healthy volunteers
Yes
Inclusion criteria
Eligible criteria were present non-limited physical and cognitive conditions evaluated by the following: Mini Mental State Exam-MMSE, Barthel Index and Lysholm Scoring Scale. The MMSE questionnaire was conducted to determine the cognitive ability of the subjects according to education level and it had to be more than 13, while the Barthel Index to establish the activities of daily living (ADL) had also to be more than 13 and the Lysholm Scoring Scale was applied to assess knee functional status which had to set up at 84.
Exclusion criteria
Nil
Outcome results
None listed