Leisure-time physical activity for health promotion in elderly: initial evidence from the ‘‘Passiata Day’’ model

Abstract

Purpose: Falls prevention interventions are a priority for public health systems in order to reduce falls-related high costs. The University Hospital of Palermo promoted the ‘‘Passiata Day’’ model, an initiative of the Department of Geriatrics that provided a 1-h walk for once a week in a park of Palermo. It was guided by a graduate in physical education and a medical doctor. The aim of this study was to evaluate posturographic parameters in a sample of elderly including a group of subjects that had been walking regularly in the ‘‘Passiata Day’’ model for 6 months and a group of sedentary elderly subjects. Methods: A number of 109 older people were recruited at the University Hospital of Palermo and divided into the following groups: the physical activity group (PAG: n = 75; age 70.87 ± 7.09 years; height 160.75 ± 7.38 cm; weight 70.71 ± 13.87 kg) and the sedentary group (SG: n = 34; age 75.5 ± 9.43 years; height 157.32 ± 19.60 cm; weight 70.94 ± 21.64 kg). All participants performed a stabilometric test in two different conditions: with eyes open (EO) and with eyes closed (EC) using the freeMed baropodometric platform and the freeStep software (Sensor Medica ; Guidonia Montecelio, Roma, Italia). In accordance with the Romberg test, subjects were required to stay in a standing position for 51.2 s with feet placed side-by-side forming an angle of 30 and both heels were 4 cm apart. The parameters considered were: Sway Path Length (SPL) of the CoP; Ellipse Sway Area (ESA); CoP coordinates along the frontal (DX; X-mean) and sagittal (DY; Y-mean) planes. Mean values and standard deviations were calculated using Statistica Software 12 (StatSoft, TIBCO Software Inc, Palo Alto, CA, USA). Differences between groups were analysed via t tests for comparisons. The alpha level was set at p\0.05. Results: The stabilometric evaluation with EO did not show any significant differences (p[0.05) between the PAG and SG for all the posturographic parameters. Instead, as concerns the EC condition, we found a significant difference in ESA (p = 0.01), DX (p = 0.002), DY (p = 0.02) of the CoP in the PAG compared to the SG. Conclusions: Our results showed that a leisure-time physical activity improve balance in elderly, in particular in stress conditions as with EC. Indeed, the PAG showed significantly lower postural sway parameters when compared to SG. This indicates that walking regularly can increase proprioceptive capacity in elderly in order to prevent the risk of fall. Reference Okubo Y, Osuka Y, Jung S, Rafael F, Tsujimoto T, Aiba T, Kim T, Tanaka K (2016) Walking can be more effective than balance training in fall prevention among community-dwelling older adults. Geriatr Gerontol Int 16(1):118–125