The Effects Of Regular Exercise On Fine Motor Skills Of The Hands In The Elderly

Background and purpose: Aging will not only cause motor dysfunction of major muscle groups such as walking,running and jumping,but also impair the motor function of small muscle groups,resulting in the decline of fine motor skills such as hand stability,dexterity and coordination.The decline of fine motor skills seriously affects the independent living abilities of the elderly,so it is necessary to find positive and effective measures to slow down the process.At present,regular exercise has been proved to be an effective measures to improve the motor function of major muscle groups of the elderly,and a variety of exercise items that could improve balance,walking and other abilities have been deeply and systematically studied.By contrast,the effects of exercise on the fine motor skills of the elderly have been rarely paid attention,and there is a lack of relevant research.There is no direct experimental evidence whether the exercise could improve fine motor skills of the hands in the elderly,different forms of exercise have different effects on the fine motor skills in the elderly,and whether the effect of exercise would be interfered by cognitive position and working position of the major muscles are blank.Therefore,this research adopt multi-dimensional evaluation methods to compare the differences of fine motor skills between the elderly who exercised regularly and irregularly in sitting position,cognitive interference position and postural interference position.We would comprehensively discuss the effects of exercise on the fine motor skills in the elderly by focusing on interference position and the forms of exercise.The research conclusion will provide valuable theoretical basis and practical guidance to improve the fine motor skills of the elderly,and further improve the independence and quality of life of the elderly.Methods: In this study,a total of 117 independent community women aged 60-75 years were recruited by field contact,word of mouth and leaflets.According to their exercise habits,the subjects were divided into regular exercise group and irregular exercise group,according to the forms of exercise,the regular exercise group was further divided into four groups: small ball exercise group(n=12),square dancing group(n=26),traditional exercise group(n=26)and walking exercise group(n=23).All subjects were tested in sitting position,cognitive interference position and postural interference position.Among this research,postural interference position took the posture of standing with the front and rear feet in a straight line,while cognitive interference position was applied as a calculation task.test methods of fine motor skills include:(1)Hand stability test: hand holding needle continuous jack,hand holding needle suspended at a fixed position.(2)Hand dexterity test: quantitative inserting long pins,quantitative moving long pins.(3)Hand coordination test: moving the spot forward with two hands.All test data were analyzed and processed by spss25.0 statistical software.The independent sample t test was used to compare Intergroup difference,and the paired sample t test compared the intra-group differences under different interference positions.One-way ANOVA was used to compare the differences between different forms groups of exercise,and LSD was used for the post-test comparison.The difference significance level was defined as0.05.Results:1.The comparison results of fine motor skills between the regular exercise group and irregular exercise group: compared with the irregular exercise group,in the regular exercise group under the sitting position,cognitive interference position and postural interference position,the diameter of the hole of inserting was significantly smaller(P < 0.05),and the number of hitting was significantly less(P < 0.05),the time to inserting and removing long pins was also significantly shorter(P < 0.05),at the same time,the time to complete the spot movement was also shorter(P < 0.05),both groups had a certain number of times out of bounds,but the difference was not significant(P > 0.05).2.The comparison results of fine motor skills between intra-group: compared with the non-interference position,in the two groups at cognitive interference position and postural interference position,the diameter of the hole of inserting was significantly larger(P<0.05),and the number of hitting was significantly more(P<0.05),the time to inserting and removing long pins was also significantly longer(P<0.05),at the same time,the time to complete the spot movement was also longer(P<0.05),and the number of times out of bounds was also significantly more(P<0.05).3.The comparison results of fine motor skills in different forms of groups:(1)Hand stability: there was no significant difference in the diameter of the hole of inserting and the number of hits between the groups(P > 0.05).(2)Hand dexterity:in the small-ball exercise group,the time to inserting long pins was significantly shorter than traditional exercise group(P=0.015?P=0.044)and the walking group(P=0.000?P=0.009)under the sitting position and the postural interference position,but only shorter than walking group(P < 0.005)under the cognitive interference position.(3)Hand coordination: the small ball exercise group,the square dancing group and the traditional exercise group was significantly shorter than the walking group in the time to complete the point movement under the sitting position,cognitive interference position and postural interference position(P < 0.05),but the difference in the number of out of bounds was not significant between groups(P > 0.05).Conclusion:1.Regular exercise has a positive effect on the hand stability,dexterity and coordination in sitting position,cognitive interference position and postural interference position.However,whether the elderly have regular exercise or not,the cognitive interference and the postural interference will still reduce the fine motor skills.it indicates that although exercise have certainly positive effects on the fine motor skills in the elderly under different position,it still cannot completely fill the influence of cognitive and postural interference.2.Different forms of exercise have different effects on fine motor skills in the elderly at different dimensions.In contrast,small ball exercise were particularly more effective on hand dexterity,small ball,square dancing and traditional exercise groups have better hand coordination than the walking group.