Development of a community physical activity program and evaluation of its effectiveness for elderly women: a pilot study

Lim Hee-Sook
Department of Food Sciences and Nutrition, Yeonsung University
Park Yoon-Hyung
Department of Preventive Medicine, Soonchunhyang University College of Medicine
Kim Tae-Hee, Lee Hae-Hyeog
Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Soonchunhyang University College of Medicine
Park Chan Young, Lim Joong-Yeon, Park Hyun-Young, Kim Won-Ho
Division of Cardiovascular Diseases, Center for Biomedical Science, KNIH, KCDC

Background: Korea is experiencing a population decline and rapid aging. The life expectancy of women is greater than that of men, but these extra years generally do not involve good health for women. This study aimed to develop a differentiated physical activity program based on local community health promotion for elderly women and to evaluate the program’s effectiveness.
Methods/results: The participants were divided into an exercise group (n = 57) and a control group (n = 52). The exercise group underwent a regular physical activity intervention program 3 times a week for 12 weeks. We compared changes in anthropometric characteristics between before and after a application of the program, and the percentage of body fat mass decreased significantly in the exercise group. The exercise group also showed a significant decrease in total cholesterol (TC) and low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol levels. In particular, the change in triglyceride levels after application of the program was approximately 54.3 mg/dl (range from 171.9 mg/dl pre-exercise to 117.6 mg/dl post-exercise). Basal physical fitness improved markedly among the exercise group participants. On the other hand, in the control group, with no application of a regular physical activity program, the body fat mass and the of LDL-cholesterol levels slightly increased after 12 weeks. Additionally, sarcopenia was seen to have significantly decreased after physical activity programs.
Conclusion: The elderly women undergoing a regular exercise program showed improvement across several health indices through reduction in hyperlipidemia, hypercholesterolemia, and sarcopenia, leading to improved physical fitness. Further studies that consider psychosocial factors and nutrition status should be undertaken to increase the effectiveness of the regular physical activity program applied in this study.

Keywords: Elderly women, Physical activity, Health program, Skeletal muscle index, Muscle mass