Benefits of Cycling Wheelchair Training for Elderly with Physical Disability: A Prospective Cohort Study

Jimmy Chun-Ming Fu, Pin-Kuei Fu and Yuan-Yang Cheng ()
Additional contact information
Jimmy Chun-Ming Fu: Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, Taichung Veterans General Hospital, Taichung 40705, Taiwan
Pin-Kuei Fu: Department of Medical Research, Taichung Veterans General Hospital, Taichung 40705, Taiwan
Yuan-Yang Cheng: Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, Taichung Veterans General Hospital, Taichung 40705, Taiwan

IJERPH, 2022, vol. 19, issue 24, 1-10

Abstract: Aim: In order to investigate the effect of cycling wheelchair training as an exercise for aged 65+ disabled patients on cognitive function, quality of life, aerobic capacity and physiological parameters. Methods: Participants in nursing home performed cycling wheelchair training for 30 min a day, 5 days a week, for a total of 4 weeks. The main outcome measure was the short form 12 survey (SF-12). Other outcome measures included the Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE), aero bike work rate test, resting blood pressure, and heart rate. Results: In this study, 41 volunteers were recruited and no participants dropped out of the study voluntarily during training, and no serious adverse effect was identified. Physical and mental component summary total scores of SF-12 were significantly higher after training with statistical significance ( p = 0.001). 8 subscales also showed significant improvements after training ( p = 0.025 ~ <0.001). Total MMSE score has no difference before and after training. Attention/calculation ( p = 0.018), short term memory ( p = 0.041), and aerobic capacity ( p < 0.001) as measured by subscales of MMSE and aero bike test showed marked improvements, while resting systolic blood pressure ( p = 0.931) and heart rate ( p = 0.793) did not change. Conclusions: Cycling wheelchair is practical for the disabled elderly to exercise, and a 4-week exercise program enhanced their quality of life and aerobic capacity.

Keywords: aged; disable; exercise; quality of life; wheelchair (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/19/24/16773/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/19/24/16773/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:19:y:2022:i:24:p:16773-:d:1002832

Access Statistics for this article

IJERPH is currently edited by Ms. Jenna Liu

More articles in IJERPH from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().