Author: World Health Organization

Publication Date: January 1, 2017

Description: Understanding the effect of physical exercise on older people with limitations in physical and cognitive function is extremely important. To assess its benefits, we reviewed the evidence of the effects of physical exercise on muscle strength, balance, gait speed, chair stand, timed up and go, ADL and physical functioning measured by the Short Physical Performance Battery. Although evidence from developed countries has shown potential benefit of physical-activity programmes for older people, it is still unclear whether such evidence and recommendations could be relevant for older people in low resource health care settings, where the majority of older people in the world reside.

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Keywords: independent living, frailty, cognitive function, activities of daily living (ADLs)