Comparison of range of motion during movement from supine to sitting position in healthy young and elderly participants.
Tetsuro Watanabe, Hisayoshi Ogihara, Takehito Soeta and 2 others
PMID 30774215WHAT IT FOUND
Healthy elderly participants had larger shoulder extension and elbow flexion angles and reached the measured joint angles earlier when getting up from lying, compared with healthy young participants.
Key findings
01During getting up from lying, healthy elderly participants showed larger right shoulder abduction, both shoulder extension, right elbow flexion, trunk extension and both hip adduction angles, and smaller neck flexion, trunk flexion and left hip abduction angles, than healthy young participants.
02Healthy elderly participants reached the measured joint angles earlier than healthy young participants for all joint movements.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for PTsWhat it means for OTs
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What it does not show
The study included only healthy participants and excluded anyone with orthopedic or neurological conditions or pain, so it does not show how patients with stroke, weakness or pain get up. The young group was all men, while the elderly group included both men and women, so age and sex may be mixed together. The sample was small: 14 young men and 16 elderly people. The task was performed on a 41-cm-high platform, not on a bed or floor, and the movement was practiced and standardized, so it may not match real-life transfers. The researchers used a special way to define joint angles, and they say this may make it hard to compare their numbers with other studies.
Declared interests
The authors state that there are no conflicts of interest to disclose.
The easy way to misread this
Do not conclude that older adults need elbow extensor strengthening to get up better. The study compared healthy young men and healthy elderly people, not patients, and it did not test whether strengthening changes the movement.