Foot Core Exercise Program on Balance Control and Walking in Aged Sarcopenia

Summary

In modern society with an increasing aging population, recent literature has defined sarcopenia as a significant reduced mass and function of skeletal muscle with physical limitations due to aging. Clinically and experimentally, the foot often plays a crucial role in sensorimotor control and movement performance in standing, walking, and running. Apparently, previous literature has shown that the intrinsic and extrinsic foot muscles have significantly reduced muscle morphology and muscle strength in the elderly compared to that of young healthy controls. How to effectively increase foot muscles using muscle-strengthening exercises will be a crucial issue for further research and clinical intervention in this population.

The intrinsic foot muscles (IFM) are the primary local stabilizer to provide static and dynamic stability in the foot, which are part of the active and neural subsystems to constitute the foot core system. The intrinsic foot muscles (IFMs) may play a key role in supporting foot arches (e.g., the medial longitudinal arch, MLA), providing flexibility, stability, shock absorption to the foot, and partially controlling foot pronation. Due to the difficulties in teaching and learning the plantar intrinsic foot muscle (IFM) exercise, the accuracy and follow-up after learning this exercise could be questioned following this exercise program. Physiologically, the effects of integrated exercise intervention may be achieved following more than 4-week intensive exercise intervention at least. How to learn and activate this kind of exercise efficiently and effectively is a key issue for employing these exercise interventions in the elderly with and without sarcopenia.

In this project, we will aim to employ the novel intrinsic foot muscle strengthening device using 3-D printing techniques and to examine the feasibility and reliability of the morphology in intrinsic and extrinsic foot muscles and foot posture before and after exercise intervention using sonographic imaging and foot posture index in the elderly with and without sarcopenia; second, we will investigate whether the immediate and persistent increase in balance control and level-walking after this therapeutic exercise with novel 3-D printing foot core exerciser.

Conditions

• Sarcopenia
• Muscle Weakness
• Walking, Difficulty
• Balance Control

Interventions

BEHAVIORAL

integrated exercise therapy with 3D printing exerciser for training intrinsic foot muscles

The therapeutic exercise program with a custom-made 3-D printing foot core exerciser, consisting of warm-up exercise, active range of motion in the foot and ankle joints, foot core system strengthening program using the 3D printing device, and stretching exercises for foot and ankle.

BEHAVIORAL

regular exercises for the elderly

The regular exercise provided for the elderly in the dwelling community, including walking, simple aerobic exercises, stretching exercises

Sponsors & Collaborators

• Buddhist Tzu Chi General Hospital

  lead OTHER

Principal Investigators

• Chich-Haung R Yang, PhD · College of Medicine, Tzu Chi University

Study Design

Allocation

RANDOMIZED

Purpose

SUPPORTIVE_CARE

Masking

QUADRUPLE

Model

PARALLEL

Eligibility

Min Age

65 Years

Max Age

95 Years

Sex

ALL

Healthy Volunteers

Yes

Timeline & Regulatory

Start

2022-08-30

Primary Completion

2023-07-31

Completion

2023-07-31

Countries

• Taiwan

Study Locations