FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. - One out of three seniors who break a hip this year will die as a result of complications from the fracture. But simple fitness measures can greatly reduce a senior’s risk of falling, say University of Arkansas researchers. A pilot outreach project, sponsored by the UA Office for the Studies on Aging, proved that in a matter of weeks, seniors can achieve significant gains in strength and balance by following a simple exercise program that places minimal strain on the body or budget.

UA researchers Ro DiBrezzo, Barbara Shadden and Inza Fort developed PUSH - Project Urging Senior Health - to demonstrate the ease of establishing and maintaining senior exercise programs in the community. As a trial run, the researchers initiated simple fitness regimens at two senior centers in Arkansas. But the results they noticed among seniors who participated were so significant, they now suggest that similar programs across the nation could significantly reduce the number of senior citizens who suffer from falls and fractures each year.

They present their results today at the Association for Gerontology in Higher Education meeting in St. Petersburg, Florida.

"Our scheme was to go into senior centers and teach the staff that exercise programs could be easily integrated into their services - that fitness could be inexpensive, easily administered and fun," said DiBrezzo, UA professor of exercise science. "We didn’t expect to see any statistically measurable changes in senior health in only ten weeks, but when we looked at the data, our participants had made surprising gains."

Though they regarded PUSH primarily as an outreach program, the researchers collected data, hoping results would bolster the case for providing exercise services to the elderly. They tracked 19 participants from the two Arkansas senior centers, conducting physical and mental assessments at the beginning of the program and then testing again at the end of ten weeks. The participants ranged in age from 60 to 90 with a significant representation in the older age range of 80 and above.

The physical assessment led seniors through eight tests of strength, balance, flexibility and dynamic balance - or ability to balance while in motion. According to the researchers, initial results showed Arkansas seniors to be significantly below national fitness norms for the elderly.

For 40 minutes a day, three times a week, the seniors then performed stretching and strengthening exercises, using therabands and exercise balls and learning proper exercise technique. At the end of ten weeks, the physical assessment tests showed statistically significant improvement in measures of balance, strength and dynamic balance. In addition, the participants improved their levels of HDL - the "good" form of cholesterol.

" According to fitness norms for the elderly, the participants in this program ranked in the tenth percentile in strength and dynamic balance when we started. But just performing simple exercises over a couple of months, they moved from the tenth percentile to the sixty-fifth," DiBrezzo said. "We had people on oxygen doing these exercises, people using walkers. That’s a huge leap for people who are so frail."

And the benefits were not exclusively physical. The mental assessment the researchers conducted tested more than cognitive functioning. It included a questionnaire that asked how active the participants were on a daily basis and recorded their general states of mind - whether they usually felt anxious or calm, energetic or worn out.

"We found connections between mental state and both initial and final physical performance scores," said Shadden, a professor of communication disorders. "Mind and body interact more than you’d think, and both are important to our quality of life as we age."

Improving the outlook of seniors and raising their confidence in their physical abilities can be crucial to maintaining their quality of life. Two days ago, the New York Times reported that 30 to 50 percent of senior citizens fear falling to such a degree that it curtails their activities and impairs their general lifestyle.

If senior centers across the nation were to offer simple exercises programs such as the one used in PUSH, elderly Americans could improve their overall health, reduce their risk of falling and reap mental health benefits that could keep them active and involved in the community. Such programs may also save taxpayers money by reducing the tens of billions of dollars expended each year on the hospitalizations, rehabilitation services and in-home care required after seniors experience a fall.

DiBrezzo, Shadden and Fort intend to expand the reach of PUSH this spring by conducting a training seminar for individuals involved in senior services. The workshop will train people in how to properly implement senior exercise programs in a manner both safe and cost-effective.

"Pretty much anyone who works with older adults is in a position to implement this program," Shadden said. "Starting an exercise program in a couple of senior centers isn’t going to fully serve the elderly population. The point is to train as many people as possible how to do it."

The pilot program for PUSH was funded by the Community Care Foundation of Northwest Arkansas and represented a partnership between the University of Arkansas Office for the Studies on Aging and the Washington County Council on Aging. In February, the program won the "Best Practice Award for the State of Arkansas" from the Arkansas Department of Human Services.