PURPOSE
The study aimed to investigate the effects of leg strength exercise for elderly women on their muscle strength, flexibility, and frequency of urinary incontinence.
METHODS
The participants were 117 elderly women. The data were collected between June and November 2017. The leg strength exercise was performed for 60 minutes, twice a week, for 24 weeks. Exercise classes were for 60 minutes including 10 minutes of warm-up exercises, 40 minutes of strength exercise, and 10 minutes of cool-down exercises. The muscle strength, flexibility, and frequency of urinary incontinence were measured before and after the leg strength exercise. The results were analyzed with χ2 test and, repeated measures ANOVA using the SPSS/WIN 22.0 program.
RESULTS
After the leg strength exercise, the leg strength significantly increased after 3 and 6 months each, and the flexibility of the leg significantly increased after 3 months. Additionally, frequency of urination before sleep significantly decreased after 6 months, and frequency of urination during bedtime also decreased. Moreover, frequency of urinary urgency and urge urinary incontinence significantly decreased.
CONCLUSION
The leg strength exercise had a positive effect on elderly women in terms of muscle strength, flexibility, and urinary incontinence. A follow-up study is needed to determine the long-term effects of the leg strength exercise.

Citations

• A Multisite Study on the Effect of a Urinary Incontinence Self-Management Program on Community-Dwelling Older Women in Korea
  Sunah Park, Aeyoung So
  Journal of Wound, Ostomy & Continence Nursing.2024; 51(1): 61.     CrossRef

PURPOSE
The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of Tai Chi exercise on muscle strength, balance, flexibility and bone mineral density among community dwelling elderly women.
METHODS
A quasi-experimental pretest-posttest design with a nonequivalent comparison group was utilized, Elderly women were recruited from the community settings and assigned to either the treatment group (n=30) or the comparison group (n=34). Both groups completed the pretest and the posttest measures at six months with an 29.7% of dropouts. Tai Chi exercise was performed for 60 minutes, three times a week for 24 weeks. The study participants were referred to the sports clinic of the university hospital where an exercise therapist and a technician measured muscle strength, balance, flexibility, and bone mineral density without the knowledge of the group assignment. Data were collected from June 14, 2010 to May 27, 2011.
RESULTS
At the completion of 6 month Tai Chi exercise, the experimental group showed a significant difference in knee flexor strength (t=3.26, p=.002), flexibility (t=-2.93, p=.005), and bone mineral density in femur (t=2.20, p=.032), compared to the control group.
CONCLUSION
Tai Chi exercise could be performed safely to community dwelling elderly women and effective for preventing declining in physical function in this population. Whether or not this health benefits would lead fall prevention will require further study.

Citations

• A trend of Tai Chi in osteoporosis research: A bibliometric analysis
  Libing Liang, Mingyue Zhang, Kunpeng Li, Jianmiao Hou, Caiqin Wu
  Complementary Therapies in Medicine.2024; 86: 103083.     CrossRef
• Effects of 12-week Tai Chi program on physical function, depression, and quality of life among cognitively impaired older adults: a feasibility study
  Hyunkyoung Oh, Rhayun Song, Seon Joo Kim
  BMC Geriatrics.2023;[Epub]     CrossRef
• The Effects of Tai Chi Chuan Exercise Training on the Lower Extremities of Middle-Aged and Elderly
  Bo-Jen Ko, Ting-Ting Lee, Tai-Yen Hsu, Chen-Fu Huang
  Applied Sciences.2022; 12(9): 4460.     CrossRef
• The effects of tai chi chuan exercise training on countermovement jump performance in the elderly
  Bo-Jen Ko, Tai-Yen Hsu, Chen-Fu Huang
  Research in Sports Medicine.2020; 28(4): 563.     CrossRef
• The Effects of Tai Chi Exercise on Hope, Dependency, and Perceived Health Status of Elderly Women
  Yong Ju Park, Ja Ok Kim
  Journal of muscle and joint health.2014; 21(2): 106.     CrossRef

PURPOSE
The study aimed to apply Tai Chi exercise to patients with coronary artery disease for 6 months, and to examine changes on body composition, physical strength, and cardiovascular risks. METHODS: Applying a quasi experimental design with a nonequivalent control group, 90 subjects with cardiovascular disease were recruited at C university hospital. For 6 months, 44 subjects performed Tai Chi exercise once a week and daily home exercise, while 46 subjects did not. Body composition was assessed by body mass index, % body fat, and waist-hip ratio; physical strength by balance, mobility, flexibility, grip strength, and back muscle strength; and cardiovascular risk checklist for fixed and modifiable risk factors. Data were analyzed by SPSS/WIN program with ANCOVA to consider group differences at the pretest. RESULTS: The subjects were 66 years old in average. In 6 months, Tai Chi group improved significantly in balance, mobility, and flexibility with decreased modifiable cardiovascular risks after adjusting for the pretest scores. CONCLUSION: Tai Chi exercise was safely applicable to individuals with coronary artery disease, and effective in some measures of physical strength and modifiable cardiovascular risks. It could be an alternative exercise for outpatient cardiac rehabilitation program in this population.

PURPOSE
The study was to examine the effect of lumbar stabilization exercise on back pain, physical fitness, sleep, and depression in middle-aged women who have chronic back pain.
METHODS
With one group pre-post test design, 18 subjects who have had more than 6 months of back pain were recruited by convenience sampling in D metropolitan area. Lumbar stabilization exercise was based on Tai Chi for back pain program developed by Lam(2003). This program was mainly focusing on strengthening lumbar stabilizing muscle for one hour per session, twice a week for 20 weeks. Degree of back pain, back pain disability, sleep, and depression were measured at three time points(pretest, 12 weeks, and 20 weeks) by a structured study questionnaire. Physical fitness variables including waist flexibility, mobility, and back muscle strength were measured three times at health promotion center located in the university hospital. Data were analyzed by frequency, descriptive statistics, and repeated measures of ANOVA.
RESULTS
Mean age of subjects was 52 years(SD = 6.4). Most of them(90%) had suffered from back pain more than one year and 67% was taking medicine to relieve their back pain. Results showed that back pain score and disability score were not significantly decreased after the exercise. On physical fitness variables, however, waist flexibility(F = 3.50, p = .04) and mobility(F = 3.31, p = .04) were improved after the exercise. Quality of sleep(F = 4.48, p = .03) was improved gradually and depression scores were also decreased(F = 3.12, p = .05) after the exercise.
CONCLUSION
This lumbar stabilization exercise was not able to reduce chronic back pain, but could improve physical fitness and psycho-social variables for community dwelling women who have chronic back pain. Further study is needed to replicate this exercise with control group to confirm the positive effect.

The purpose of this study was to explore the change of muscle strength, muscle endurance, flexibility and activities of daily living to develop a rehabilitational program. The subjects were selected randomly among the patients who underwent kidney transplantations at one major transplantation hospital in Seoul, Korea. This study was carried out between November 23, 1999 and February 15, 2000. The subjects in this study consisted of 16 patients who had kidney transplantations between 1 month and 12 months ago prior to this study. They were all on steroids and did not take any physical exercise regularly. The muscle strength, muscle endurance, flexibility and activities of daily living were evaluated at 1st week and after 12 weeks. The data were analyzed with numbers, percentiles, mean, standard deviation and t-test. The results were as follows: 1. After 12 weeks, the grip strength was significantly decreased than 1st week (p=.0002). 2. After 12 weeks, the back lift strength was significantly decreased than 1st week (p=.0002). 3. After 12 weeks, the muscle endurance was increased than 1st week, but it was not significant(p=.5487). After 12 weeks, the flexibility was significantly decreased than 1st week (p=.0002). 5. After 12 weeks, the activities of daily living was significantly decreased than 1st week (p=.0006). Like the above result, the kidney transplant receipients' muscle strength, flexibility and activities of daily living were reduced. In order to solve this problem, the writer has found that program development to prevent the defects should be extremely required. Since now on the number of patients should expand. After the kidney transplantation, the periods of 4, 8, 12 and 16 weeks are extended. The writer proposes to examine the different phase of change in each periods.