Effect of functional fitness promotion program for community-dwelling elderly person using the transtheoretical model

The purpose of this study was to examine practicability and effectiveness of the functional fitness promotion program using the transtheoretical model for the community dwelling elderly. The program was constituted the home-based exercise program and the facilitating program for exercise adherence and participation. The subjects in the intervention group were 72 aged persons (25 males; 70.2±4.5 yrs, 47 females; 68.0±5.2yrs), and in the control group were 85 aged persons (31 males; 71.6±6.2 yrs, 54 females; 68.5±4.9 yrs). The exercise program was composed of stretching for flexibility, muscle conditioning for muscle strength, and brisk walking for aerobics. The facilitating program designed to enhance subject's motivation for exercise adherence using the transtheoretical model. The facilitating program was applied in the periodic classes which were held every 2 weeks over the period of 5 months. The program adherence, class participation, and implementation of exercise programs were calculated to assess the program practicability at the end of the intervention period. And also, to assess the effectiveness of the program, informations of exercise behavior stage, functional fitness, and energy expenditure by habitual exercises were obtained before and after the intervention. The program adherence and class participation were 68.1% and 87.7% at the end of the intervention period. Neither of these value showed no significant differences among the stages. With the streching and the muscle conditioning programs, implementation at the stage combined contemplation with preparation showed high average values, but the stage combined action with maintenance showed significantly higher value than the contemplation and preparation stage. The implementation of brisk walking in the contemplation and preparation stages showed gradual increase during the intervention period. However, the value in the action and maintenance stage was significantly higher than that in the contemplation and preparation stage. In the intervention group, subjects showed significant progress in exercise behavior stage, but no progress in the control. The total energy expenditure of habitual exercises showed increase only in the intervention group, which produced a significant difference between the groups. Functional fitness also showed the same change as the total energy expenditure in the intervention group. These changes in the intervention group showed no significant difference among the exercise behavior groups. These results suggest that the functional fitness promotion program composed of the exercise and facilitating programs using the transtheoretical model are effective for enhancing subject's motivation for the continuous involvement in exercise program and promoting functional fitness level in the elderly.