Versatile physical activity reduces risk of falls and fractures in elderly women

12 Dec 2007 

Versatile physical exercise reduces the risk of falls and fractures in 70–80-year-old women. This is the finding of a study conducted at the UKK Institute that examined the effects of various forms of physical exercise with a test group of 149 women. The results were reported at the Academy of Finland in December 2007.

In the twelve-month study, women were divided into three groups: one of these focused on strength, the other on balance and jumping ability, and the third on strength, balance and jumping ability. There was also a control group. The results show that a versatile physical activity programme, which combines both strength, balance and jumping exercises, reduces the risk of falls and fractures and strengthens the skeletal structure of women between the ages of 70 and 80.

“Since good muscular leg strength as well as good balance are essential in terms of general functional ability and day-to-day routines, daily and weekly programmes of the elderly people should include strength exercises as well as balance, agility and jumping exercises,” says Ari Heinonen, Professor in Physiotherapy at the University of Jyväskylä.

Exercise also gives lasting results. This was the focus of another study of the group. The follow-up measurements conducted one year later showed that the effects on balance as well as on the structure of the loaded bone achieved by healthy elderly women through intensive strength and balance exercises can partly be maintained by means of general physical activity even for a year’s time after stopping exercising. “This observation also indicates that physical exercise helps delay the occurrence of problems related to capability of movement of healthy elderly people,” Heinonen says.

Heinonen has also headed a study investigating the effects of genetic and environmental risk factors on the structural durability of supporting and non-supporting bones as well as on the  muscular cross-section area and the bone strength of elderly women. The results indicate that the heredity of bone strength seems to vary in different parts of the bone depending on the load environment. Besides, certain genetic and environmental factors may expose elderly women to both sarcopenia (loss of skeletal muscle mass, strength and function) and osteoporosis (loss of the normal density of bone), but may, on the other hand, also prevent them.

More information:
· Professor Ari Heinonen, University of Jyväskylä, Department of Health Sciences, tel. +358 (0)14 260 2164, email: firstname.lastname@sport.jyu.fi
· Karinkanta et al., Osteoporosis Int. 2007 18:453–462

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