Participants and sample
visual or auditory problems d), fatigue, traumatic brain injury, neurological or musculoskeletal disorders, diabetes mellitus b
CHRONIC OBSTRUCTIVE PULMONARY DISEASE, UNCONTROLLED HYPERTENSION, CEREBROVASCULAR DISEASE
The study targeted older adults aged 65–80 years living in Abbasağa district of Beşiktaş municipality in İstanbul, Turkiye. It was carried out between December 2020 and December 2021 during the period of partial restrictions of the Covid-19 pandemic by obtaining the permission of the local municipality. The restrictions in place forbade all outdoor activities to persons 65 and older except only at 10:00–14:00 on weekdays.A systematic filtering of the municipal registry for the targeted population yielded a list of 2552 persons. With a probabilistic random sampling method, every 12th person on this list was called by phone; 200 people could be successfully contacted and invited to the study. 100 persons accepted and were invited to the local municipal health clinic where they were individually interviewed and tested for the study criteria in a quiet and spacious room. The inclusion criteria were: a) being between 65–80 years old b) getting a score of 24 or higher on the Mini Mental State Examination c) not having visual or auditory problems d) being able to walk without using assistive devices e) not having neurological or musculoskeletal disorders that prevent exercise. Exclusion criteria were: a) uncontrolled hypertension and diabetes mellitus b) chronic obstructive pulmonary disease c) cardiovascular and cerebrovascular disease or a history of traumatic brain injury d) major surgery in the past 6 months that causes walking difficulties.The demographic and clinical characteristics of 60 candidates meeting the study criteria were recorded during the individual interviews. Each of them executed an individual trial exercise session under physiotherapist supervision in the same room after which the individual’s self-reported fatigue level according to the Modified Borg Scale (1–10) was noted [