Effects of aquatic exercise on agility, cognitive level, and quality of life in people aged between 55 to 80 years
Keywords:
Cognitive, Aquatic exercise, Agility, Quality of life, ElderlyAbstract
This quasi-experimental study aimed to investigate the effects of aquatic exercise on the agility, cognitive level, and quality of life of people aged between 55 and 80 years old. Thirty-two participants were recruited and divided into an experimental group (n = 17) and a control group (n = 15) using convenient sampling. Agility, cognitive level, and quality of life assessments of participants were performed, prior and post training, using the ten-step test (TST), Thai Mini-Mental State Examination 2002 (MMSE-Thai 2002), and EQ5D-5L, respectively. The experimental group received a 50-minute program of aquatic exercise, 2 times/week for 8 weeks while the control group continued their normal daily activities for 8 weeks. The differences within groups and between groups in TST, MMSE-Thai 2002, and EQ5D-5L scores were compared using the Wilcoxon Signed Rank test and the Mann-Whitney U test, respectively. A significance level of 0.05 was determined.
The results showed that the agility score after training in the experimental group was statistically higher than previous findings, and the experimental group score was higher than the control group (p-value < 0.001). However, the cognitive level and quality of life scores between the two groups showed no significant difference. The 50-minute aquatic exercise program failed to generate any serious adverse events, and all participants involved in the study completed the entire program. The aquatic exercise improved the agility of people aged between 55 to 80 years, but the improvements in their cognitive level and quality of life remained unchanged.
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