Comparison of once and twice weekly water exercise on various bodily functions in community-dwelling frail elderly requiring nursing care

Previous research suggests that water exercise (WE) improves bodily functions of the frail elderly, but there is as yet no research on the effect of once weekly WE. This study aims to compare the effects of once and twice weekly WE on bodily functions of frail elderly requiring nursing care in six months. The design is a prospective cohort study. Participants were assigned to two different exercise groups (once weekly group or twice weekly group; n = 35). Once weekly group participate in a 60-min exercise session once a week, for six months while twice weekly group attended the session twice a week. Exercise sessions were divided into a 10-min warm-up on land and 50 min of exercise in water. The 50-min WE program consisted of 20 min walking, 10 min activities of daily living (ADL) exercise, 10 min stretching and strength exercises, and 10 min relaxation in water. Muscle strength, flexibility, balance, mobility and ADL disability were measured before the beginning of intervention and three months and six months after the program had started. Significant differences between the once and twice weekly groups were found in flexibility and balance at 3-months and 6-months and lower muscle strength and ADL disability only at 3-months. These results from present study suggested that the effects of WE frequency in the fail elderly who require nursing care were different for each bodily function.