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Physical activity and successful aging
10th International EGREPA Conference

European Group for Research into Elderly and Physical Activity

14.09. - 16.09.2006 in Köln

Activity as a protecting factor for falls?

Meeting Abstract

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  • corresponding author K. Engelhard - German Sport University Cologne, Germany
  • J. Kleinert - German Sport University Cologne, Germany
  • O. Bock - German Sport University Cologne, Germany

Physical activity and successful aging. Xth International EGREPA Conference. Cologne, 14.-16.09.2006. Düsseldorf, Köln: German Medical Science; 2006. Doc06pasa099

The electronic version of this article is the complete one and can be found online at: http://www.egms.de/en/meetings/pasa2006/06pasa099.shtml

Published: December 18, 2006

© 2006 Engelhard et al.
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/deed.en). You are free: to Share – to copy, distribute and transmit the work, provided the original author and source are credited.


Outline

Text

Objective

The greater risk of falling in the elderly is often explained by age-related decrease of cognitive and physical abilities. Some studies show that this phenomenon is due to inactivity and reduced use of resources than a biological consequence [1]. Based on this idea, the present study investigated the risk of falling of physically active senoirs.

Methods

30 young (M = 25.37; SD = 3.13) and 28 old subjects (M = 65; SD = 3.56) with comparable physical activities took part in the study. Throughout the whole experiment subjects were walking on a treadmill. Walking speed was 1.2 m/sec for the young and 0.8 m/sec for the old.

While walking on a treadmill the subjects had to avoid unexpected obstacles as a single task (O_S) and with a concurrent signal-detection task (O_C). A two factor ANOVA tested, whether the group factor age and the repeated measure factor task had an effect on the number of obstacle contacts.

Results

We found a significant effect for the factor task on the number of obstacle contacts (O_C > O_S; p < .01). It was not possible to show a significant effect for the factor age ( p = .59).

Conclusions

Results indicate, that there is no greater risk of falling for physical active seniors. Hence, it seems advisable to implement physical activities in fall prevention programs.


References

1.
Wahl HW, Tesch-Römer C. Interventionsgerontologie im deutschsprachigen Raum. Zeitschrift für Gerontologie und Geriatrie. 1998;31:76-88.