The Effect of Caffeine in Elderly Citizens

Herning Hospital

Status and phase

Completed

Phase 4

Conditions

Healthy Elderly Citizens

Treatments

Drug: Caffeine

Study type

Interventional

Funder types

Other

Identifiers

NCT00117520

2612-1987

Details and patient eligibility

About

The study investigated the effect of caffeine on physical performance in healthy citizens aged over 70 years. The main hypothesis was that 6 mg/kg caffeine would improve cycling endurance at 65% of expected maximal heart rate.

Full description

Caffeine ingestion increases the endurance of young people exercising at 60%-85% of their maximal oxygen uptake, and it also seems to improve endurance as measured by repeated sub-maximal isometric contraction and decreases the rate of perceived exertion during exercise. Although caffeine increases endurance in young people, an increase in endurance may be of greater interest in the elderly as the population of older adults with a physically active lifestyle is growing rapidly or for increasing endurance fitness through an exercise or rehabilitation program. Therefore the main hypothesis was that caffeine would improve cycling endurance at 65% of expected maximal heart rate, and the secondary hypotheses were that caffeine would improve postural stability, reaction and movement times, isometric arm flexion endurance, and walking speed, and would reduce the rate of perceived exertion after 5 minutes of cycling in healthy elderly citizens.

Sex

All

Ages

70+ years old

Volunteers

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

Healthy elderly individuals aged over 70 years

Exclusion criteria

Dementia or invalidating psychiatric disease
General debility, angina, or other diseases that would render participation in the test program impossible
Treatment with beta receptor blocking drugs, calcium-channel blocking drugs, digitalis, or nitroglycerine
Acute disease and injury
Diabetes
Conditions that would contraindicate caffeine ingestion or participation in the test program
Treatment with medication that interacts with caffeine
Ingestion of caffeine containing drinks and foods 48 hours before each session