Investigation of Impacts of Vibration on Muscular Strength and Functional Performance of Upper Limbs of Older Adults

The elderly population is increasing at worldwide. The need of health promotion and maintenance for elderly adults has become a critical issue. According to a national investigation in 2017, the number of people over 65 years old accounts for 13.33% of the total population and would reach 20.1% by 2050. Muscle strength and functional performances of upper limbs play an important role in most daily activities in elderly adults. However, with aging, the muscle strength of upper extremities could be affected and decrease the functional performances of daily living. Vibration exercise can be used to induce the muscle contraction and motor control in lower limbs for people with neuromuscular disorders. Few studies have investigated the training effects on muscle strength and functional performances of upper limbs for elderly adults。Therefore, appropriate training devices and exercise programs to facilitate the muscle strength and functional performances of upper limbs in elderly people would be needed for clinical therapists. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to develop a vibration training device and investigate the training effects on muscle strength and functional performances of upper limbs in elderly people. This study will recruit 44 elderly adults, evaluating the muscle strength and functional performances of upper limbs before and after interventions. All subjects will be randomized assign to experimental and control groups; the experimental group will perform 30mins/ section, three times weekly for 8 weeks vibration training, and the control group will receive regular exercise training at same time. Two-way ANOVA with repeated measure will be applied to analyze the training effects and difference in the muscle strength and functional performances of upper limbs between two groups. SPSS version 18.0 statistical software will be used. The α level for statistical significance is set at 0.05.