Wednesday, April 1, 2026

Elderly extremely vulnerable to muscle breakdown from just a few days of disuse as "disuse atrophia": Rollator debunked!!

 However, emerging studies revealed the potential attentional demand of rollator use, as well as falls and injuries attributed to usage. Despite the increasing dependence on rollators by the aging population, limited knowledge exists of the contextual, demographic, physical, and cognitive characteristics of the older adults who use these assistive mobility devices, which are crucial to determining the association between rollator use and falls. ...

 (1) the dual-tasking effect of rollators on gait performance, and (2) a positive association between fall history of older adults and the interaction effect of being a rollator user and dual-task step-time variability.

2021 Ph.D. rehab science thesis

 cadence was significantly lower while DT [Dual Task talking and] walking with the rollator compared to without. ....
AMD use did not improve DT walking performance; rather, it caused further degradation that resulted in slower gait compared to unassisted DT walking, especially for rollator users. ...This is a clinically relevant finding since older-adult users of AMDs are
believed to be at higher risks of falling if their capacity to perform dual-tasking cannot meet the attentional demands of the contextual environment, which could lead to trips, falls, and missteps while using the rollator or cane (Boisgontier et al., 2013; Muir-Hunter & Montero-Odasso, 2017;
Tung et al., 2011). 

 Posture. Kyphosis is characterized by forward-flexed posture and has been associated with
increased fall risk (Kado et al., 2007; Van Der Jagt-Willems et al., 2015) and impaired mobility
(Balzini et al., 2003). According to Balzini et al.'s (2003) classification of OWD measurements
(mild: ≤ 5cm, moderate: 5.1-8cm, and severe: >8cm), rollator users’ mean OWD (SD) is
classified as severe kyphosis (10.65cm (4.50)) whereas the No-AMD group has moderate
kyphosis (7.79cm (2.79)).

 rollator users will demonstrate a
significant increase in relative risk for the predictor variables of fall history (gait, balance,
strength, demographics, and dual-task walking measures). This study’s findings revealed that the (2) interaction of rollator user with DT step-time variability was significantly associated with the fall history in partial support of the hypothesis. RR estimate demonstrated that the interaction of DT step-time variability and rollator user is significantly associated with fall history among
rollator users relative to the non-AMD older-adult group. 

 However, emerging studies revealed the potential attentional demand of rollator use, as well as falls and
injuries attributed to usage.

Determining Older-Adult Rollator Users’ Characteristics, and the Effect of Rollator Use on Mobility and Its Association with Falls

 
Yes, substantial muscle breakdown and atrophy occur within just 5 days of disuse (bed rest or immobilization) in the elderly. Older adults are particularly vulnerable, losing muscle mass and strength at a faster rate than younger individuals, often experiencing significant declines in leg strength after only a few days of inactivity ...

 
 Older adults, especially those over 70, may suffer from muscle loss that is harder to recover, with some losing up to 15% of their strength in a single week of bed rest.

 rate of force development (RFD),...While young and old adults demonstrated similar adaptive responses in preventing the loss of skeletal muscle thickness, RFD was retained in the young only.

 https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC11330699/

[PDF] HUMAN MUSCLE DISUSE ATROPHY AFTER 28 DAYS OF IMMOBILIZATION IN A LOWER-LIMB WALKING BOOT: A CASE STUDY.

DS Willoughby, S Sultemeire, M Brown - Journal of Exercise Physiology …, 2003 - asep.org
… a role in atrophy in human skeletal muscle in response to 28 days of disuse. The purpose
of this case study was to examine the extent of selective muscle disuse atrophy that occurred …Cited by 11 Related articles All 4 versions 
K Hachisuka, Y Umezu, H Ogata - Archives of physical medicine and …, 1997 - Elsevier
… rehabilitation, histochemical alterations of the quadriceps femoris muscle aroused our
interest, because this muscle plays an important role in stabilizing the knee joint during walking … Cited by 199 Related articles All 9 versions

The time course of disuse muscle atrophy of the lower limb in health and disease

EJO Hardy, TB Inns, J Hatt, B Doleman… - Journal of Cachexia …, 2022 - Wiley Online Library
… This consistent finding suggests that the mechanisms involved in disuse atrophy may vary
atrophy in those muscle which usually contribute the most force during standing and walking… Cited by 90 Related articles All 10 versions

Disuse-induced skeletal muscle atrophy in disease and nondisease states in humans: mechanisms, prevention, and recovery strategies

EA Nunes, T Stokes, J McKendry… - … of Physiology-Cell …, 2022 - journals.physiology.org
… These observations suggest that in the absence of systemic hormonal or cytokine-mediated
dysregulation, muscle disuse atrophy is governed by distinct mechanisms from those … Cited by 189 Related articles All 7 versions

Muscular atrophy following immobilisation: a review

HJ Appell - Sports medicine, 1990 - Springer
… or absence of histological changes runs throughout the literature on disuse atrophy. …
walking. However, when the volunteers were subjected to a 2-week isokinetic training programme … Cited by 557 Related articles All 7 versions

Atrophy resistant vs. atrophy susceptible skeletal muscles:“aRaS” as a novel experimental paradigm to study the mechanisms of human disuse atrophy

JJ Bass, EJO Hardy, TB Inns, DJ Wilkinson… - Frontiers in …, 2021 - frontiersin.org
Disuse atrophy (DA) describes inactivity-induced skeletal … exhibit differing degrees of atrophy,
despite exhibiting similar … to investigate Atrophy Resistant tibialis anterior (TA) and AtrophyCited by 29 Related articles All 14 versions [PDF] nih.gov

Effects of exercise on soleus in severe burn and muscle disuse atrophy

MR Saeman, K DeSpain, MM Liu, BA Carlson… - journal of surgical …, 2015 - Elsevier
disuse. This investigation found that hindlimb disuse had an additive effect on muscle atrophy
… the prolonged metabolic changes with muscle atrophy and resultant decrease in function …Cite Cited by 35 Related articles All 9 versions

Prevention of post-stroke disuse muscle atrophy with a free radical scavenger

H Naritomi, H Moriwaki - Front Neurol Neurosci, 2013 - books.google.com
… of femoral muscle atrophy was significantly milder and the maximum walking speed was …
understanding the pathophysiology of disuse atrophy. Disuse atrophy of skeletal muscle occurs … Cited by 16 Related articles All 8 versions

Temporal muscle-specific disuse atrophy during one week of leg immobilization

SP Kilroe, J Fulford, SR Jackman, LJC Van Loon… - 2020 - acuresearchbank.acu.edu.au
… skeletal muscle atrophy occurs. The relative susceptibility of different muscles of the thigh
to disuse atrophy remains uninvestigated. We assessed muscle disuse atrophy of individual …Cited by 164 Related articles All 11 versions [HTML] nih.gov

The impact of muscle disuse on muscle atrophy in severely burned rats

X Wu, LA Baer, SE Wolf, CE Wade… - Journal of Surgical …, 2010 - Elsevier
… burn and muscle disuse or, more … disuse plays an additive role in burn-induced muscle
catabolism. Therefore, in this study, we sought to test whether combining the standard Walker-… Cited by 36 Related articles All 9 versions

  disuse appeared to be the dominant factor for continuous muscle wasting  

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