When your wellbeing has been affected by a broken hip, your mobility can suffer and you can become dependant on those around you for help. However, according to a new study, published in Jama (the Journal of the American Medical Association), fitness can help you to avoid these outcomes. The researchers found that simple at-home exercises could help seniors regain mobility and independence after recovering from a broken hip.
After following a six-month home exercise programme, participants were significantly better able to get up and around, climb stairs and attend to daily activities than their counterparts who only had typical post-fracture rehab. Study lead author Nancy Latham, from the Health and Disability Research Institute at Boston University, stated, ‘We found that a low-contact, low-support sort of programme did significantly improve people’s function and mobility six months after they started it.’ This is an important discovery, as a broken hip often marks the start of a rapid decline in older people’s wellness. Previous research has found that, two years after breaking a hip, roughly half of men and over a third of women are either living in a nursing home or dead.
Latham commented, ‘We know there is a gap there where people are being left in a poor functional state. ‘It’s good to know that [months of intensive outpatient physical therapy] works, but that’s not going to be realistic.’ Therefore, the researchers looked for a more realistic home-based fitness programme, and recruited 232 people aged 60 years old and older from the Boston area to test it out. The average age of the participants was 78, and all had experienced a hip fracture and had been released from a physical rehabilitation programme within the past 20 months. One group of 120 volunteers participated in three or four visits from a physical therapist, focusing on home exercises surrounding realistic daily movements like getting out of a chair and stepping up or down. Members of this group were each given a programme DVD and told to do the exercises three times a week for six months.
In the other group, which consisted of 112 participants, nutrition information was sent through the mail. The comparison group also received nutrition education during a home visit and a series of phone calls. The researchers tested everyone for physical performance, mobility and daily activity when they entered the study, at six months and again at nine months. Wellness writer Andrew M. Seaman details, ‘When they began the programme, participants in the exercise group scored an average of 6.2 on a scale that measures physical performance between zero and 12 – with higher scores indicating better function. The nutrition group similarly scored an average of six at the start. At six months, the exercise group participants scored an average of 7.2, compared to an average of 6.2 among those in the nutrition group. That 0.8 point difference in function between the two groups would be a noticeable difference to the participants.’
Nine months later, the results were similar. Latham commented, ‘The message from this study is that if somebody has had a hip fracture, that when the usual therapy ends, there is most likely still further where they can improve.’ Dr. Stephen Kates, an orthopaedic and rehabilitation specialist at the University of Rochester Medical Centre, who was not involved in the study, added that further research into this area is merited, particularly focusing on which people recovering from a broken hip at home are the best candidates for this type of exercise. He surmised, ‘It’s probably the patient who’s a little bit marginal for staying home. It’s just going to become more of a problem for our health system and for all of us to deal with.’
Can Performing Simple Exercises at Home Help Hip Recovery?
When your wellbeing has been affected by a broken hip, your mobility can suffer and you can become dependant on those around you for help. However, according to a new study, published in Jama (the Journal of the American Medical Association), fitness can help you to avoid these outcomes. The researchers found that simple at-home exercises could help seniors regain mobility and independence after recovering from a broken hip.
After following a six-month home exercise programme, participants were significantly better able to get up and around, climb stairs and attend to daily activities than their counterparts who only had typical post-fracture rehab. Study lead author Nancy Latham, from the Health and Disability Research Institute at Boston University, stated, ‘We found that a low-contact, low-support sort of programme did significantly improve people’s function and mobility six months after they started it.’ This is an important discovery, as a broken hip often marks the start of a rapid decline in older people’s wellness. Previous research has found that, two years after breaking a hip, roughly half of men and over a third of women are either living in a nursing home or dead.
Latham commented, ‘We know there is a gap there where people are being left in a poor functional state. ‘It’s good to know that [months of intensive outpatient physical therapy] works, but that’s not going to be realistic.’ Therefore, the researchers looked for a more realistic home-based fitness programme, and recruited 232 people aged 60 years old and older from the Boston area to test it out. The average age of the participants was 78, and all had experienced a hip fracture and had been released from a physical rehabilitation programme within the past 20 months. One group of 120 volunteers participated in three or four visits from a physical therapist, focusing on home exercises surrounding realistic daily movements like getting out of a chair and stepping up or down. Members of this group were each given a programme DVD and told to do the exercises three times a week for six months.
In the other group, which consisted of 112 participants, nutrition information was sent through the mail. The comparison group also received nutrition education during a home visit and a series of phone calls. The researchers tested everyone for physical performance, mobility and daily activity when they entered the study, at six months and again at nine months. Wellness writer Andrew M. Seaman details, ‘When they began the programme, participants in the exercise group scored an average of 6.2 on a scale that measures physical performance between zero and 12 – with higher scores indicating better function. The nutrition group similarly scored an average of six at the start. At six months, the exercise group participants scored an average of 7.2, compared to an average of 6.2 among those in the nutrition group. That 0.8 point difference in function between the two groups would be a noticeable difference to the participants.’
Nine months later, the results were similar. Latham commented, ‘The message from this study is that if somebody has had a hip fracture, that when the usual therapy ends, there is most likely still further where they can improve.’ Dr. Stephen Kates, an orthopaedic and rehabilitation specialist at the University of Rochester Medical Centre, who was not involved in the study, added that further research into this area is merited, particularly focusing on which people recovering from a broken hip at home are the best candidates for this type of exercise. He surmised, ‘It’s probably the patient who’s a little bit marginal for staying home. It’s just going to become more of a problem for our health system and for all of us to deal with.’