A novel weight-bearing strengthening program during rehabilitation of older people is feasible and improves standing up more than a non-weight-bearing strengthening program: a randomised trial.

Question: What is the feasibility and effectiveness of a novel weight-bearing strengthening program compared with that of a traditional non-weight-bearing strengthening program for older inpatients undergoing rehabilitation?

Design: Randomised, controlled trial with concealed allocation, assessor blinding, and intention-to-treat analysis.

Participants: Eighty-eight inpatients (11% loss to follow-up) aged on average 82 years old from three rehabilitation units with no contraindications to exercise.

Intervention: Both the weight-bearing and non-weight-bearing strengthening programs were supervised by physiotherapists and were of similar intensities (10 to 15 RM) for two weeks.

Outcome Measures: The primary outcomes were standing up performance measured as minimum chair height, and strength measured as maximum isometric knee extensor force of both legs. The secondary outcomes were other mobility measures such as standing-up rate, walking, standing and overall mobility, and other strength measures such as maximum isometric hip extensor, hip abductor, and knee flexor force of both legs.

Results: After the two-week intervention, the weight-bearing strengthening group had decreased their minimum chair height by 5.3 cm (95% CI 0.7 to 9.8) and increased their hip extensor strength on the weaker leg by 9 N (95% CI 1 to 17) more than the non-weight-bearing strengthening group. There were no clinically-worthwhile or statistically-significant differences between the groups for any other measures.

Conclusion: This novel weight-bearing strengthening program was feasible and safe in an inpatient rehabilitation setting and had some additional benefits over a traditional non-weight-bearing strengthening program.