Effects of long‐term exercise class on prevention of falls in community‐dwelling elderly: Kahoku longitudinal aging study

Abstract

Background: We intended to compare the effect on preventing falls between the subjects participating and not participating in exercise classes over 8 years of follow up in all the community‐dwelling elderly in Kahoku Town, Kochi Prefecture, Japan. Methods: We compared falling state both in 1993 and 2001 between 119 participants (male : female ratio, 51:68; mean age, 72.5 years) in exercise class during the 8‐year period from 1993–2001, and 878 non‐participants (M : F ratio, 243:635; mean age, 73.4 years). We assessed the long‐term effects of participating in exercise classes on preventing falls via multivariate, longitudinal analysis. Results: Only participation in both the 1993–1995 period and 1996–2001 one was a significantly independent contributing factor for prevention of falls even after the adjustment for age, sex, activities of daily living, depression scale and presence/absence of oral drugs (odds ratio, 0.20; P = 0.007). Although it failed to reach significance in this study, recent and continuing exercise was supposed to be effective for prevention of falls. Conclusion: Unlike a short program, long‐continuing exercise is effective in preventing falls of community‐dwelling elderly for a long time after the adjustment of age, activities of daily living, depression and other confounding variables.