Antropomotoryka nr 57 [2012]. - Akademia Wychowania Fizycznego ...

Assessment of the effectiveness of rehabilitation period on physical fitness and exercise tolerance in elderly peopleFigure 2. Comparison of the progress in the 6-minute walk test achieved by the participants with BMI < 25 and BMI > 25imbalance and associated falls are the most disturbingsymptoms of aging, triggering fear of injury and loss of independence.Both, the significant prolongation of humanlife and the constant increase in number of older people,have an impact on the need to develop and implementeffective rehabilitation programs that would contribute tomitigating the adverse age-related changes, and aboveall develop the balance of the body of an elderly person,thereby reducing the risk of falls [9, 10].Pain occurring in old age can significantly affect theefficiency and level of activities of daily living. It can alsodistort the results of functional tests. Commonly usedpain relief medications, however reduce pain, have anadverse effect on the body. Physiotherapy is the alternative,particularly therapeutic exercises and exercises inwater. There is a belief about the beneficial effects of theaquatic environment on many diseases. Patient can doa lot more in unloaded conditions. Kaczor et al. assessedthe use of a two-week therapy based on water exercises,observing a reduction in pain which lowered the consumptionof analgesics in this research group [11].The researchers in numerous studies have provedthat kinesitherapy not only contributes to the reductionof disability and increases range of joint motion, butalso modifies cardiovascular efficiency, and acts positivelyin the case of coexisting diseases such as highblood pressure, diabetes and obesity [8].Our findings have confirmed the beneficial effect ofan exercise program developed at rehabilitation campon all the components of physical fitness as well as thespeed of walking. The importance of the improvementof walking speed, and what’s involved, the improvementof balance outlined Żak, who used physiotherapy programincluding free active exercises, active exerciseswith resistance and balance exercises in high positions.He stressed that these exercises should be a regularpart of rehabilitation programs [12].The results of rehabilitation in “Get up and go” testobtained in this research after the rehabilitation cyclewere highly significant. Podsiadlo and Richardson [13]in their article also highlighted that the elderly, able toperform this test in 20 seconds or less, were the personswho could operate without help, keeping a balancein static and dynamic positions and reachinga good walking pace.Based on the research conducted by the authorsof the test, standards for healthy elderly people wereestablished. The study involved people between 60–94years of age. In Europe these norms have not beenestablished yet. The above study, conducted on thepopulation of south-eastern provinces of Poland,showed that these residents got a significantly worsetest results comparing to American population. The authorssuggested that a sedentary lifestyle could haveaffected these results [14].Comparative test results covering two populations,American and Polish, have clearly proved that Polesin the same age ranges achieved significantly worse– 61 –