Author(s): BÖCKER, J., SACHS, L., DREY, M., KAISER-STOLZ, C., BLOCH, W., DEKANT, A., RITTWEGER, J., Institution: GERMAN AEROSPACE CENTER, Country: GERMANY, Abstract-ID: 1509

INTRODUCTION:
Sarcopenia is a rising problem worldwide, mainly due to the steady increase in life expectancy. It is scientifically well-established that strength training is the most important measure to counteract sarcopenia. However, the implementation of strength training in nursing homes with a particularly large number of people affected is often prevented by a number of barriers. Such barriers often have an influence on the acceptance and feasibility of an intervention. However, these two aspects are as important as the effectiveness of a training. Thus, the aim of this study was to investigate acceptance and feasibility of a recently proposed training algorithm in nursing homes.
METHODS:
The staff of 5 nursing homes were trained in the KNIMS algorithm stage B (Weber et al., 2024) and exercised over 4 weeks (5 times a week, Monday till Friday) with 28 residents. Each training session was documented, the performance of the individual exercises was recorded, the subjective assessment of the exercise intensity of the residents was surveyed and the motivation of the residents was assessed by the nursing staff. For the analysis, we divided acceptance and feasibility as follows: combined acceptance and feasibility (cAF) quantifying the adherence of the residents to the training, operational feasibility (opF) describing the integration of the training in the daily activities of a nursing home, and exercise performance feasibility (EPF) as applicability of the exercises to the residents.
RESULTS:
The cAF was at least 54%, the opF was 91% and the EPF ranged from 88% to 94.2% depending on the kind of exercise. The opF was higher than 100% in two facilities, as training sessions were also offered at weekends in addition to the planned training sessions from Monday to Friday. In contrast, the number of weekly training sessions at one facility was reduced due to a lack of staff as a result of a COVID-19 outbreak. Finally, it turned out that the training motivation was higher for training in a group (P = 0.007), but the training intensity was higher during individual training (P < 0.001).
CONCLUSION:
The study demonstrates that the training algorithm is both accepted (by the instructing staff and the residents) and feasible/implementable in a nursing home environment. It has been shown that, contrary to our previous assumption, training is also possible at weekends. It was also shown that the exercises of the algorithm consisting of squat, lunge and one-leg stand can be performed by the majority of residents. The biggest barrier to carrying out the training, thus influencing acceptance as well as feasibility, is the availability of staff as obtained in the facility with the COVID-19 outbreak. The efficacy of the algorithm needs to be proven in the future.

References:
Weber et al. (2024). Therapeutic resistance training: proposal for an algorithm-based approach. Translations and Exercise biomedicine. https://doi.org/10.1515/teb-2024-2009