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Fighting
Frailty to Stay at Home
By Eric Nagourney
NY Times, October 22, 2002
Elderly
people who want to stay at home but worry that they may be too frail
can benefit from an in-home training program, researcher say.
The
program was described in a recent issue of The New England Journal
of Medicine. It was evaluated in a study paid for in part by the
National Institute on Aging and led by Dr. Thomas M. Gill of the
Yale School of Medicine.
The
researchers wanted to see whether ailing elderly people could be
trained to improve their chances of living independently. The
program was described as "pre-habilitation," —
preventing serious injuries rather than reacting to them.
The study
looked at 188 elderly people who met the researchers' definition of
frail: they were unable to walk 10 feet and back in 10 seconds or to
rise from a chair with their arms folded, for example.
The
participants were divided into two groups. Over the next six months,
one group received health education. An educator visited members to
discuss good health practices, physical activity and handling
medications.
Members
of the other group met with a physical therapist, who taught them
exercises to develop balance, strength and mobility. The therapist,
who visited the homes an average of 16 times, gave the participants
independent exercise schedules when he thought they were ready.
After a year, researchers found that those people in
the physical therapy group had much lower disability scores —
determined by how easily they could perform basic maneuvers like
using the toilet or getting out of bed — than those in the other
group. |
