A new study published in Archives of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation investigated the feasibility and benefits of Whole-Body Vibration (WBV) exercise as a safe and effective training-tool for countering sarcopenia and age-related declines in mobility and function in the frail elderly.

This was an open, randomized control trialthat included residential care-facilities. Participants were117 maleand female volunteers with an age-range of 82.5 ± 7.9 years. After the pre-screening for contra-indications, participants were randomly allocated to a Control (CON), Simulated-WBV (SIM) or WBV-exercise (WBV) group. All participants received regular care while WBV- and SIM- participants also underwent thrice-weekly exercise sessions for 16 weeks.

The results revealed high levels of compliance in SIM (89%) and WBV-training (93%),along with ease-of-use and no adverse effects. When compared to the baseline-levels, WBV-training elicited clinically-important treatment-effects in all parameters, compared to SIM and CON groups. In addition, treatment-effects remained apparent up-to 12-months post-intervention for Parallel Walk and 6-months for 10-m Timed-Walk. However, functional-test performance declined during- and post-intervention in non-WBV groups.

From the findings, it was concluded that 16-weeks of low-level WBV-exercise provides easily-accessible, adequate stimulus for the frail elderly to attain improved levels of physical functionality.

Source: Archives of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation. 2020 Mar 4. pii: S0003-9993(20)30144-1. doi: 10.1016/j.apmr.2020.02.009.