Physical activity and maintaining physical function in older adults

Abstract

Physical activity has a myriad of effects that stem from physiological adaptations that may transfer to improvements in clinical outcomes such as reducing the risk of falls.5 The purpose of this article is to briefly review the current literature regarding whether PA can help maintain physical function in older adults and offer some suggestions for clinicians wanting to improve physical function with PA. As illustrated in fig 1, individuals who begin a regular PA programme early in life and maintain this over the years will likely have high physical performance throughout the lifespan, although a decline in physical function is inevitable. Potentially more clinically relevant is whether a PA programme can set a person on a different trajectory over time (see …