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Combined diet, exercise more beneficial in older obese adults than either intervention alone
Villareal DT. N Engl J Med. 2011;364:1218-1229.
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A combination of weight loss and exercise significantly improved physical function of obese older adults vs. either intervention alone, according to 1-year, randomized trial data.
The trial included 107 participants who were aged at least 65 years and considered obese. They were randomly assigned to either a control group (n=27), a weight-management (diet; n=26) group, an exercise group (n=26), or a diet-plus-exercise (diet-exercise; n=28) group. Among these participants, 93 finished the study.
At 1 year, the researchers reported that the study’s primary outcome, the change in Physical Performance Test score, was higher, thus indicating better physical status in individuals from the diet-exercise group (21%) vs. either diet (12%) or exercise (15%) groups, although all three were better than the control group (1%; P<.001 for between group differences).
Similarly, peak oxygen consumption was better in the diet-exercise (increase of 17%) arm compared with diet (10%) or exercise (8%) participants, as were scores on the Functional Status Questionnaire with the diet-exercise arm vs. the diet arm (increase of 10% vs. 4%; P<.001). Conversely, the greatest decrease in body weight was documented in the diet arm compared with those in the diet-exercise group (10% vs. 9%; P=.67), whereas no decreases were found in either the control or exercise arms.
“Our findings suggest that weight loss alone or exercise alone improves physical function and ameliorates frailty in obese older adults; however, a combination of weight loss and regular exercise may provide greater improvement in physical function and amelioration of frailty than either intervention alone,” the researchers concluded. “Therefore, weight loss combined with regular exercise may be beneficial in helping obese older adults maintain their functional independence.”
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