抄録
This study was conducted on a total of 99 elderly participants: 32 mild-care receivers, 34 severe-care receivers, and 33 healthy elderly. We examined the relationships that the level of care required have with skeletal muscle mass, with bone mineral density, and with knee extension muscle strength, as well as inter-group comparisons. The results showed the following. (1) There was no correlation between the level of care required and gender, BMI, total muscle mass, or skeletal muscle mass, while there were correlations among the level of care required, age, the ratio of the right knee extension strength to weight, and the ratio of the left knee extension strength to weight. (2) In the inter-group comparison of the severe-care receivers, mild-care receivers, and the healthy elderly, there were significant differences (p＜0.01) between the care receivers and the healthy elderly concerning the ratio of the knee extension strength to weight, as well as concerning bone density (SOS and YAM values). (3) The mean value of the ratio of knee extension strength to weight was significantly higher in the healthy elderly group than the care receiver groups. The care receiver groups showed a weak positive correlation in the left-right difference of the ratio, while the healthy elderly group showed a strong positive correlation. Therefore, it was suggested that the degree of care required for the elderly care receivers correlated with age, knee extension weight ratio and bone density (SOS and YAM values). These results suggest that in order for elderly people to live a more active life, it is important not only to simply increase skeletal muscle mass but also to increase the knee extension weight ratio through neurological approaches.
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