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Effects of an Exercise Intervention on Immunologic Parameters in Frail Elderly Nursing Home Residents

¹ Division of Physical Therapy, Department of Rehabilitation Medicine and Center for Health in Aging, Emory University School of Medicine, Atlanta, Georgia.
² Division of Geriatric Medicine and Gerontology, Wesley Woods Center, Emory University School of Medicine, Atlanta, Georgia; and Atlanta VA Rehabilitation Research and Development Center, Georgia.
³ UCLA Borun Center for Gerontological Research, Reseda, California.
⁴ Department of Biostatistics, Emory University School of Public Health, Atlanta, Georgia.
⁵ Center for Interdisciplinary Research in Immunology and Disease (CIRID) and the UCLA AIDS Institute and Department of Microbiology and Immunology, UCLA School of Medicine, Los Angeles, California.

Background. Aging is associated with decline in both cell-mediated and humoral immunity and may contribute to increased incidence and severity of infections in frail elderly. Exercise, depending on intensity, has significant effects on the immune system. We conducted a randomized, controlled clinical trial of a 32-week functionally oriented exercise program in frail elderly living in nursing homes and determined whether the exercise intervention was associated with a change in immune parameters in this frail elderly nursing home population.

Methods. Nursing home residents were randomly assigned to an intervention () and control group (). The intervention consisted of a functionally oriented endurance and resistance exercise training that was provided every 2 hours from 8:00 AM to 4:00 PM for 5 days a week for 8 months. Lymphocyte subpopulations, including activation markers (CD28, CD25, HLA-DR), in vitro proliferation, and soluble products of cytokine activity (neopterin and sTNF-RII) in serum were measured by taking blood samples at baseline and after 8 weeks and 32 weeks of the intervention.

Results. Exercise training did not induce changes in lymphocyte subpopulations, activation markers (CD28, CD25, HLA-DR), in vitro proliferation, and soluble products of cytokine activity (neopterin and sTNF-RII) in serum.

Conclusions. A 32-week exercise intervention did not bring about beneficial or detrimental effects on immune parameters in the frail elderly nursing home population and may explain why the intervention was not associated with a change in the incidence of infections in the intervention group compared with the control group.