A supportive home visit program for older adults implemented by non-professionals: feasibility and effects on physical performance and quality of life at one year--a pilot study.

Knowledge of supportive home rehabilitative procedures is needed to improve the independent home training and psychosocial wellbeing of older people. The primary focus of this study was to assess the feasibility of a home visit program involving the use of non-professional home rehabilitation assistants (HRAs) support among elderly. The secondary objective was to investigate the effects to physical performance and health-related quality of life (HRQL) of older people.

Effect of physical activity counseling on physical activity of older people in Finland (ISRCTN 07330512).

The aim of this study was to describe the underlying theory and the implementation of a 2-year individualized physical activity counseling intervention and to evaluate whether benefits persisted 1.5 years after the intervention. The sample included 632 sedentary 75- to 81-year-old participants.

Quality of life and barriers in the urban outdoor environment in old age.

Objectives: To examine the association between barriers in the outdoor environment and perceived quality of life (QoL) in old age and to assess whether fear of moving outdoors and unmet physical activity need contribute to this association.

Design: Cross-sectional.

Setting: Community and research center.

The effect of geriatric rehabilitation on physical performance and pain in men and women.

In the developed countries, people are living longer and the number of aged persons is growing. Knowledge on the effectiveness of rehabilitative procedures is needed and information in physical performance between men and women is scarce. An intervention study was carried out in two war veterans' rehabilitation centers in Finland to examine the effects of geriatric inpatient rehabilitation on physical performance and pain in elderly men and women.

Factors associated with maximal walking speed among older community-living adults.

Background And Aims: The relative contribution of different domains on walking speed is largely unknown. This study investigated the central factors associated with maximal walking speed among older people.

Methods: Cross-sectional analyses of baseline data from the SCAMOB study (ISRCTN 07330512) involving 605 community-living ambulatory adults aged 75-81 years.

Benefits of home-based rocking-chair exercise for physical performance in community-dwelling elderly women: a randomized controlled trial.

Background And Aims: Home-based exercise is a viable alternative for older adults with difficulties in exercise opportunities outside the home. The aim of this study was to investigate the benefits of home-based rocking-chair training, and its effects on the physical performance of elderly women.

Methods: Community- dwelling women (n=51) aged 73-87 years were randomly assigned to the rocking-chair group (RCG, n=26) or control group (CG, n=25) by drawing lots.

Unmet physical activity need in old age.

Objectives: To examine which individual and environmental factors correlate with unmet physical activity need in old age and predict development of unmet physical activity need (the feeling that one's level of physical activity is inadequate and thus distinct from the recommended amount of physical activity) over a 2-year follow-up.

Design: Observational prospective cohort study and cross-sectional analyses.

Setting: Community and research center.

Cohort differences in health, functioning and physical activity in the young-old Finnish population.

Background And Aims: A mixed picture emerges from the international literature about secular and cohort changes in the health and functioning of older adults. We conducted a repeated population based cross-sectional study to determine trends in health, functioning and physical activity in the young old Finnish population.

Methods: Representative samples of community-dwelling people aged 65-69 years in 1988 (n=362), 1996 (n=320) and 2004 (n=292) were compared in socio-economic status, self-rated health, chronic diseases, memory problems, ability to carry out instrumental activities of daily living, physical activity, and five-year mortality.

Perceived constraints on physical exercise among obese and non-obese older people.

Objective: To examine what older obese people consider as constraints on their physical exercise and to determine whether these constraints can explain the differences in physical activity.

Methods: Six hundred nineteen community-living people aged 75-81 years living in Jyväskylä, Central Finland, in 2003 were included in these cross-sectional analyses. Weight and height were measured at the research center, and physical activity and perceived constraints on physical exercise were assessed using validated questionnaires.

[Home rehabilitation assistant improves the quality of life of the elderly].

We investigated the health status, functional ability, mood and quality of life of 464 persons undergoing a rehabilitation period in two centers for care and rehabilition for war veterans' by comprehensive interviews and measurements of functional ability. The investigation involved a 2 to 4-week period in a rehabilitation unit and a controlled investigation with a home rehabilitation assistant for one year. Hand grip strength, knee extension strength and walking speed, among other things, improved during the institutional rehabilitation period.

Fear of moving outdoors and development of outdoor walking difficulty in older people.

Objectives: To study which individual characteristics and environmental factors correlate with fear of moving outdoors and whether fear of moving outdoors predicts development of mobility limitation.

Design: Observational prospective cohort study and cross-sectional analyses.

Setting: Community and research center.

Physical activity history and end-of-life hospital and long-term care.

Background: Little is known about the early predictors of need for care in late life. The purpose of this study was to investigate whether physical activity from midlife onward was associated with hospital and long-term care in the last year of life.

Methods: We studied a decedent population of 846 persons aged 66-98 years at death, who, on average 5.

Long-term effect of physical activity counseling on mobility limitation among older people: a randomized controlled study.

Background: Physical activity counseling increases physical activity among older people, but its effectiveness on mobility, that is, maintaining the ability to move independently, is unknown. We studied the effect of physical activity counseling on mobility among older people and evaluated whether counseling-induced benefits persist after cessation of the intervention.

Methods: In a 2-year, single-blinded, randomized controlled study, 632 sedentary participants aged 75-81 years were randomly assigned into the intervention (n = 318) or control (n = 314) group.

Effect of physical activity counseling on disability in older people: a 2-year randomized controlled trial.

Objectives: To study the effect of a physical activity counseling intervention on instrumental activity of daily living (IADL) disability.

Design: Primary care-based, single-blind, randomized controlled trial.

Setting: City of Jyväskylä, central Finland.

The effects of physical activity counseling on mood among 75- to 81-year-old people: a randomized controlled trial.

Objectives: To examine the effects of physical activity counseling on mood among older people unselected for their depressive symptomatology.

Methods: Data are from "Screening and Counseling for Physical Activity and Mobility in Older People" project (SCAMOB), conducted in Finland during 2003-2005. SCAMOB was a 2-year single-blinded randomized controlled trial among 624 participants 75 years and older randomized into physical activity counseling group and control group.

Construct and predictive validity of a self-reported measure of preclinical mobility limitation.

Objectives: To validate self-reported preclinical mobility limitation concept and self-report assessment method against muscle power and walking speed, and to study the predictive validity of preclinical mobility limitation with respect to future risk of manifest mobility limitation.

Design: Observational prospective cohort study and cross-sectional analysis.

Setting: Research laboratory and community.

Motives for and barriers to physical activity among older adults with mobility limitations.

The purpose of this study was to investigate what older adults with severe, moderate, or no mobility limitation consider motives for and barriers to engaging in physical exercise. Community-dwelling adults (N=645) age 75-81 years completed a questionnaire about their motives for and barriers to physical exercise and answered interview questions on mobility limitation. Those with severely limited mobility more often reported poor health, fear and negative experiences, lack of company, and an unsuitable environment as barriers to exercise than did those with no mobility limitation.

Underlying factors in the association between depressed mood and mobility limitation in older people.

Background: Depressed mood may either precede mobility limitation or follow from mobility limitation.

Objective: To compare mood status among people with manifest mobility limitation, those with preclinical mobility limitation and those without mobility limitation and investigate factors explaining the association between depressed mood and mobility limitation.

Design: Cross-sectional.

Genetic influences underlying self-rated health in older female twins.

Objectives: To examine the genetic and environmental sources of variation in self-rated health (SRH) in older female twins and to explore the roles of morbidity, functional limitation, and psychological well-being as mediators of genetic and environmental effects on SRH.

Design: Cross-sectional analysis of twin data.

Setting: Research laboratory.

Changes in health, functional performance and activity predict changes in self-rated health: a 10-year follow-up study in older people.

The purpose was to examine changes in self-rated health (SRH) in older people and associations between these changes and various self-reported and objectively measured indicators of health status, functional performance and activity at three time-points 5 years apart. Further, our aim was to examine whether SRH takes the form of a continuum. The study group comprised all the baseline 75-year-old inhabitants of the City of Jyväskylä, Finland (N=382).

Multidimensional health assessment of 75- and 80-year-old men and women: a five-year prospective study.

Background And Aims: There are no earlier reports of regular multidimensional health check programs in elderly people. The aim of this study was to establish the number and type of previously unrecognized health conditions in two cohorts of elderly people examined twice during a 5-year period, and to determine how these conditions were subsequently evaluated and treated.

Methods: This population-based study, carried out at a university research center in Finland, consisted of a multidimensional and multiphased health assessment including interviews, health questionnaires and medical examinations and tests, and follow-up of subsequent examinations and treatment.