The Effect of Walking Exercise Program on Cardiorespiratory Function and Flexibility in Elderly Women

Shin, Yun Hee; Choi, Young Hee

Abstract

Recently, the ratio of elderly in the population are fastly growing due to socio-economical development and the better medical service. Proportionally, the health problems in elderly are increasing, too. Medical professionals must try so that the elderly have the better life through health promotion and disease prevention as well as disease treatment. This study evaluated the effect of walking exercise program on the cardiorespiratory function and the flexibility in the elderly women. The design of research was one group pretest -posttest design. The subjects were eleven elderly women over sixty years old to live in K-city, Kyonggi-do. The type of exercise was walking, which was the most popular exercise in questionnaire. The exercise intensity was 40%~60% of the target heart-rate by Karvonen's method and maintained by the heart-rate monitor. The exercise period was five weeks and the exercise frequency was three times per week. The exercise duration was forty minites at first and gradually increased up to a hour. In order to evaluate the effect of walking exercise, we measured VO2 max, resting heart-rate, systolic/diastolic blood pressure, FVC, FEV1, the flexibility before and after the five week's exercise program. The data are analyzed by the paired t-test and Wilcoxon signed rank test using SAS package. The results are as follows: 1) The hypothesis that cardiorespiratory function will be improved was partly supported. In VO2 max(p=0.0001), resting heart-rate(p=0. 0030), systolic/diastolic blood-pressure (p=0.0387/p=0.0024), there was significant difference. FVC and FEV1 were increased after the exercise, but there were no significant difference. 2) The hypothesis that the flexibility will be improved was supported. There was significant difference in the flexibility (p=0.0140). As the further study, it is necessary to reevaluate the effect with more refined design. We also need to try meta-analysis about the results of previous studies obtained in the experimental setting and compare our result obtained in the field setting with them.