Week 6: Using silver yoga exercises to promote physical and mental health of elders with dementia in long-term care facilities

A study published in 2011 in International Psychogeriatrics examined the effects of yoga exercises on the physical and mental health of elderly people with dementia living in long-term care facilities.  For the study, 68 elderly people with mild dementia residing at seven long-term care facilities in Kaohsiung, Taiwan were recruited.  None of the patients had participated in any kind of exercise sessions in the previous six months.  The participants were divided into the intervention group, which had 33 participants, and the control group, which had 35 participants.

The intervention group participated in an exercise program called Silver Yoga, developed by Chen et al. (2007).  The Silver Yoga sessions consisted of 3 phases.  The first phase was the 20 minute warm-up which consisted of eight movements to loosen the body structure, and each movement was performed slowly and repeated 3-4 times.  The second part was 20 minutes of hatha yoga, which involved seven gentle, stretching postures to increase range of motion and progressive muscle relaxation.  Each posture was held for 4-5 seconds and repeated 4 times.  The last 10 minutes was a relaxation phase with three activities to rest the body.  Group interventions consisted of 9 to 13 participants and were led by 2 certified Silver Yoga instructors.  The intervention was conducted 3 times per week for 55 minutes each session for 12 weeks.

Both groups took tests before and after the intervention that measured physical and mental health
status.  At the end of the 12-week study, there were significant differences between the intervention group and the control groups in most physical measures such as systolic blood pressure, respiration rate, breath-holding duration, cardio-pulmonary fitness, sit-and-reach, arm-shoulder flexibility, hand grip strength, upper limb muscle endurance, lower limb muscle endurance, and range of motion.  The intervention group also showed improvement in mental health status as measured by the Cornell Scale for Depression in Dementia (CSDD) and the Clifton Assessment Procedures for the Elderly Behavior Rating Sale (CAPE-BRS).  This study provides evidence that yoga exercises can be used to improve physical and mental health in elderly patients with dementia, which is an important part of increasing participation and independence in performing ADLs and IADLs.

Fan, J., & Chen, K. (2011). Using silver yoga exercises to promote physical and mental health of elders

with dementia in long-term care facilities. International Psychogeriatrics / IPA, 23(8), 1222-1230.

doi:10.1017/S1041610211000287