2004 Volume 7 Issue 2 Pages 73-78
[Objective] The oxygen uptake of the elderly during activities of daily living (ADL) including movements using upper limbs (arms) was compared with that of the younger generation. [Methods] The subjects were 7 healthy elderly women (the mean age of 71.8 years: elderly group) and 7 healthy younger women (the mean age of 20.3 years: younger group). All subjects of both groups were instructed to perform each of the following 7 tasks for 2 minutes: (1) Putting things on a shelf; (2) hanging out the washing to dry; (3) having a meal; (4) having a wash; (5) combing her hair; (6) changing her clothes; and (7) folding clothes after drying in the sun. [Results and Discussion] There was no significant difference between the two groups concerning METs during exercises at the conversion rate of 3.5 [ml.kg^<-1>.min^<-1>] to the MET. Regarding the oxygen uptake obtained by actual measurement in a resting-sitting subject (3.32 in the elderly group and 4.16 in the younger group) as 1 MET, however, the values of the elderly group were 1.7,1.6,1.5,1.9,1.8, 2.4, and 2.1 METs for tasks 1 through 7, respectively. Those of the younger group were 1.4,1.3,1.3, 1.5, 1.3, 1.8, and 1.7 METs for the corresponding tasks, respectively. The elderly group showed significantly (p < 0.05) high values for all the tasks. Based on these results, it is desired that the oxygen uptake obtained in a resting-sitting position by actual measurement be employed in the determination of oxygen uptake during ADL using the arms. In both groups, "resting", "shelving", "combing", and "changing clothes" were found to be independent exercise tasks.
