A rehabilitation program to improve the physical capability of seniors in a nursing home

The purpose of this study was to examine the benefits of implementing a rehabilitation program for seniors in a nursing home. A physical activity rehabilitation program study was conducted in a nursing home in Taiwan for eight weeks. Forty senior adults (20 males and 20 females) in a nursing home joined this study as human participants. All the participants were diagnosed by a licensed rehabilitation physician as having a mild physical disability. They were split into control and experimental groups. Both groups included 10 males and 10 females. The participants in the experimental group joined the rehabilitation program while the participants in the control group did not. The range of motion and handgrip strength of all the participants before and after this program was measured. The results showed that the joint range of motion (ROM) of the upper limbs, trunk, and lower limbs of the participants in the experimental group increased significantly after attending the program. The difference between all the ROM values of the participants in the control group did not change significantly during the 8-week period. Similar results were found for the grip strength.