RESEARCH ARTICLE


Sustained Improvement of Arterial Blood Oxygenation, Maximum Oxygen Consumption and Maximum Walking Distance after Treadmill Training in Healthy Elderly Subjects?



Ashraf Adel Bichay1, Mohamed Farouk Allam2, *, Maria S. Poblador Fernández1, José Luis Lancho Alonso1
1 Morphological Sciences Department. Faculty of Medicine, University of Cordoba, Cordoba, Spain
2 South Cordoba Health District. Lucena, Cordoba, Spain


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Creative Commons License
Bichay et al.; Licensee Bentham Open

open-access license: This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Public License (CC-BY 4.0), a copy of which is available at: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode. This license permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

* Address correspondence to this author at the Responsible for Epidemiology and Research, South Cordoba Health District. Ctra. Cordoba - Malaga, Km 69, 14900 Lucena – Cordoba, Spain; Tel: 957596364; Fax: 957596352; E-mail: fm2faahm@uco.es


Abstract

Background:

Physical activity is known to play an important role in improving the cardio-pulmonary function and arterial blood oxygenation (SaO2) in elderly subjects.

Objective:

To evaluate the therapeutic efficacy of treadmill training on SaO2, maximum oxygen consumption (VO2 max) and maximum walking distance in elderly healthy subjects. Design. Intervention study Setting. El Salam General Hospitals, Cairo (Egypt).

Participants:

Our study included 41 subjects. All participants appeared healthy, without chronic diseases and passed the Cardiopulmonary Exercise Test.

Intervention:

Participants were incorporated in a treadmill-training program of moderate intensity to attain a fraction of 60% to 70% of the maximum heart rate. After 12 weeks of controlled physical activity, the program was made voluntarily for 36 weeks.

Measurements:

SaO2, VO2 max and maximum walking distance were measured for each individual one-week before and 12 weeks after training and at the 30th and the 48th week of the program.

Results:

Our study included 20 men and 21 women, with mean age of 65.1 + 2.7 years (Range 60-69). An increase in the mean values of SaO2, VO2 max and maximum walking distance after 12 weeks of controlled exercise and also at the 30th week and the 48th week of the program (P<0.05). There has been a decrease in the mean values of VO2 max, SaO2 and maximum walking distance after the 30th and 48th week in comparison with the values after the first 12 weeks.

Conclusion:

Controlled treadmill training for 12 weeks improved SaO2, VO2 max and maximum walking distance of the participants. The mean values of the participants decreased after the 30th and 48th week due to lack of adherence to the unsupervised program.

Keywords: Treadmill, exercise, SaO2, VO2 max, walking distance.